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Cambridge Antiquarian Society. / Octavo publications. No. XX. 



OK AN ATTEMPT TO TRACE 






ROMAN AND OTHER ANCIENT ROADS 

THAT PASSED THROUGH 

THE COUNTY OF CAMBRIDGE; 






A BECOED OF THE PLACES WHEEE ROMAN COINS 
AND OTHER REMAINS HAVE BEEN FOUND. 



SECOND EDITION, MUCH ENLARGED. 



BY 

CHARLES CARDALE BABINGTON, MA., F.R.S., F.S.A. 

FELLOW OF ST JOHN'S COLLEGE, AND PROFESSOR OF BOTANY 
IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE. 







CAMBRIDGE: 

PRINTED FOR THE CAMBRIDGE ANTIQUARIAN BOCIETY. 
SOLD BY 

DEIGHTON, BELL & CO.; and MACMILLAN & CO, 
LONDON: GEORGE BELL & SONS. 

1883. 
Price Five Shillings. 



•' 



/3 



%,uxmt €mhtxtyts\xxt: 

OE AN ATTEMPT TO TEACE 

EOMAN AND OTHER ANCIENT ROADS 

THAT PASSED THROUGH 

THE COUNTY OF CAMBRIDGE ; 



A RECORD OF THE PLACES WHERE ROMAN COINS 
AND OTHER REMAINS HAVE BEEN FOUND. 



SECOND EDITION, MUCH ENLARGED. 



CHARLES CARDALE BABINGTON, M.A., F.R.S., F.S.A./ 

FELLOW OF ST JOHN'S COLLEGE, AND PEOFESSOE OF BOTANY 
IN THE UNIVEESITY OF CAMBEIDGE. 



CAMBRIDGE: 

PEINTED FOB THE CAMBEIDGE ANTIQUAEIAN SOCIETY. 
SOLD BY 

DEIGHTON, BELL & CO.; and MACMILLAN & CO. 
LONDON : GEORGE BELL & SONS. 



1883 







'01 
©amfirttigc j 

PRINTED BY C. J. CLAY, M.A. & SON, 
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. 



PBEFACE. 



It is not pretended that the subject treated of in 
this Essay is exhausted, but only that all the facts 
relating to it have been collected and arranged, as far 
as they are known to me. I have not knowingly 
neglected any source of information which is open 
to me. As was remarked in the preface to the first 
edition, this treatise has gradually attained its present 
size from a very small original. It consisted at first 
of a short account of the Roman roads which crossed 
each other at Camboejttjm (Cambridge) ; and did 
not describe them, except through a very few miles 
on each side of that place. As such it was com- 
municated to the Cambridge Antiquarian Society on 
March 4, 1850. But circumstances caused delay in 
its publication, and it was gradually extended until 
it included the whole of the known Roman remains 
in the county. In this latter form it was issued by 
the Society in 1853, as No. 3 of the 8vo. series of 
the Publications of the Cambridge Antiquarian 



IV 



Society. At the request of the Society I have now 
prepared a new edition, including all the additional 
information obtained since 1853, and also such cor- 
rections as required to be made. In doing this 'it 
has been thought best not to alter the plan or 
arrangement of the little book more than is abso- 
lutely necessary. An attempt has again been made 
to trace all the roads in the county which appear 
to have been used in early times, pointing out 
their probable origin ; to name all the places where 
Homan antiquities or coins have been found, with 
the authorities for them ; and to describe the ancient 
ditches, camps and other earth-works. 

The position of Cambridgeshire as part of the 
territory of the South Gyrwas, on the frontiers of 
East Anglia and Mercia, and its consequently dis- 
turbed state during much of the so-called Anglo- 
Saxon period, has unfortunately caused it to be very 
deficient in records of those centuries, during which 
we might reasonably have expected to find the ancient 
roads and sites mentioned in charters : as an illus- 
tration of what we have lost, reference may be made 
to the proof noticed in a future page (110) that the so- 
called Cnut's Dyke is older than the time of King 
Cnut, derived from its mention, under another of its 
names, in a charter of a date anterior to his reign. 

Very small pretensions are made to originality, but 
in all cases the quotations have been taken from the 
works themselves. What is here collected will shew 
how thoroughly this district was occupied in the 



Roman period, for there is scarcely a parish in which 
Roman coins have not been found, and many where 
Roman occupation is shewn by the remains of their 
fictile manufactures. No attempt has been made to 
enumerate all the pre-Roman remains, although it is 
believed that most of them are noticed ; especially 
when they adjoin, or are in any way associated with 
Roman remains. 

The plans given in this treatise have been made 
with care, and are, it is believed, accurate, but that 
of Camboritum has been materially corrected for the 
present edition. The modern parts of the plans of 
the stations at Cambridge and Grantchester are 
reduced from Baker's large map of Cambridge ; the 
plan of the station at Bury is derived from an eye- 
sketch and measurement made by pacing the ground ; 
the villa at Comberton was carefully measured and 
laid down to scale by my friend the Rev. J. J. Smith, 
late - Fellow of Caius College, but unfortunately the 
scale is lost. 

The general outline of the accompanying map, and 
the positions of modern places in the county, have 
been derived from Walker's Map of Cambridgeshire. 
No modern villages are marked upon it which do not 
tend in some way to point out the position of sites 
mentioned in this treatise ; but all places are inserted, 
and their names underlined, at or near to which 
Roman remains or coins have been found. No modern 
roads are introduced. An attempt has been made to 
point out by a different mode of drawing the supposed 



VI 



origin, more or less certain antiquity, and the course 
of the several ancient roads : the expense of colouring 
being one which it has been thought better to avoid. 
Only such of the watercourses are given as appeared 
to be necessary for the purpose of shewing the ancient 
state of the country or the position of places. 

British antiquities, such as stone implements, pal- 
staves, spear-heads and swords of bronze, beads of 
glass, &c, have occurred throughout the county, but 
they are rarely specially noticed, unless they are in 
some way associated with the Roman remains. 



Cambridge, 

Jan. 1, 1883. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Introductory Remarks . . . . . . .1 

I. Roman Station at Cambridge, the ancient Camboritum.— Iter V. 

of Antoninus 4 

II. Ancient Roads through Cambridge . . . . . .14 

1. The Akeman Street. — (1) Cambridge to Brancaster. — (2) 

Cambridge to Cirencester. —Villa at Comberton. — Akeman 
Street continued. — Baldock to Shefford. — Akerman Street 
at Ely. — Dr Mason's supposed road from Cambridge to 
Verulamium. — Akeman Street between Verulamium and 
Alcester ib. 

2. The Via Devana. — (1) Cambridge to Colchester. — Wooden 

causeway in Bridge Street, Cambridge. — Via Devana con- 
tinued. — Vandlebury. — Antiquities at Linton. — (2) Cam- 
bridge to Chester. — (3) Road from Red Cross to Grant- 
chester and Barton. — Roman Fort at Grantchester. — 
Trumpington. — Supposed continuation of this road to 
Bourn 26 

3. Other supposed Roads from Cambridge. — (1) To Chesterford. 

— Camp at Granham Farm. — (2) To Braughing . . .50 

III. Other Ancient Roads in Cambridgeshire ... .52 

4. The Erming Street . . ib. 

5. The Icknield Way . 55 

6. The Ashwell Street. — Roman Cemetery and Villa at Lit- 

lington. — Limbury Hill . 57 

7. The Peddar Way 64 



via 

PAGE 

8. The Fen Road . . 68 

9. The road from Ely to Spalding 73 

10. The Suffolk and Sawtry Way 75 

11. The Aldreth Causeway .79 

Bury near Ramsey 86 

12. The Bury to Wisbech and Spalding Road .... 88 

13. The Bullock Road 91 

14. Cnut's Dyke 95 

IV. Ancient Ditches in Cambridgeshire ib. 

1. The Devil's Ditch 97 

2. The Fleam or Balsham Dyke . . ' . . . .99 

3. The Brent or Pampisford Ditch 100 

4. The Bran or Hay don Ditch 101 

[5. The Foss or Devil's Dyke in Norfolk] . . . .104 

V. The Car Dyke .......... 105 

VI. The old Course of the Rivers through the Fens . . .110 



ANCIENT CAMBRIDGESHIRE. 



It is remarkable that until the issue of the former edition 
of this treatise no separate work had appeared concerning the 
ancient state of this county. But, although no separate or 
connected work on this interesting subject exists, there are 
scattered materials from which a considerable amount of in- 
formation may be obtained. The persons to whom we are 
chiefly indebted for the knowledge that they have preserved 
for us are few in number, but their remarks are of very 
great value, from having been made before the inclosure of 
the parishes destroyed all traces of many of the ancient roads 
and other antiquities. They are : 

(1) Dr William Bennet, formerly fellow of Emmanuel 
College, and afterwards Bishop of Cloyne (1790). Large ex- 
tracts from his manuscript account of the Roman roads are 
printed in Lysonss Magna Britannia. 

(2) Dr Charles Mason, formerly fellow of Trinity College, 
and rector of Orwell, who made a trigonometrical survey of 
the county, and many manuscript notes. These were used 
by Gough in his edition of Camden's Britannia, and by 
Lysons in his Magna Britannia, but the originals are not now 
to be found. 

B. 1 



(3) We have the very learned, but fanciful works of 
Stukeley, entitled Itinerarium Curiosum, 1724 ; and Medallic 
History of Carausius, 1757 — 1759. 

(4) Much valuable matter and many judicious remarks 
are to be found in Horsley's Britannia Romana, 1782. 

(5) Dr William Warren, formerly Vice-Master of Trinity 
Hall, wrote a dissertation upon the subject of the site of the 
Grantacasster of Bede, which is said to have " demonstrated 
the thing as amply as a matter of that sort is capable of," 
that that place is now represented by the Castle End of 
Cambridge. Brydges informs us that it was the intention 
of his brother, Dr R. Warren, to publish this tract which 
came into his hands after the death of the Vice-Master (Be- 
stituta, iv. 388). It does not appear that he carried out his 
intention, nor have I succeeded in learning the fate of the 
manuscript. A note in Gough's Camden led me to hope that 
it might exist in the archives of the Spalding Gentleman s 
Society, but it does not appear that the paper was ever com- 
municated to them, for their minutes, as I learn through the 
kindness of Mr Charles Green, one of the few members of that 
ancient and celebrated society, merely record the reading of 
a letter from the Rev. Mr Pegg, on Sept. 4, 1735, stating the 
fact of Dr Warren's demonstration, but not giving its mode 
of proof. As Dr Warren left some manuscripts to Trinity 
Hall, concerning the antiquities of that college, I had some 
faint hopes that the missing tract might be preserved amongst 
them, but the Rev. W. Marsh, some time Vice-Master of that 
society, had the kindness to examine the papers left by Dr 
Warren, and informed me tbat the treatise on Grantacasster 
is not amongst them. 

Having made these preliminary remarks, I proceed to the 
description of the ancient roads which pass through the county; 
and, as it will be most convenient to take Cambridge as a 



starting-point from which to trace those that diverged from 
thence, it will also be proper to occupy ourselves shortly with 
Cambridge itself. 



I. CAMBRIDGE. 

The Roman station at Cambridge was wholly situated to 
the north of the river Cam, and a considerable part of three 
of its sides may still be easily traced. If we commence by 
entering the town from Huntingdon, and immediately turn 
to the right, we soon find ourselves upon the top of the lofty 
bank of a broad and deep ditch which was apparently 10 
or 12 feet deep, and perhaps nearly 40 in width. A row of 
cottages, called Pleasance Row, stands upon it and there is 
a steep descent from their front to their back walls. Bowtell 
(MS. ii. 96) says that the width of another part of the ditch 
was seen in 1802, when men were digging across a spot skirting 
the east side of the station to obtain brick-earth. The place 
was called Blackamore Piece, and the ditch appeared to have 
been from 10 to 12 feet deep, and 39 broad. Returning to the 
bank and passing in front of the Storey's Alms-houses we 
arrive at the western angle of the ancient town, rounding it, 
a row of cottages called Mount Pleasant is found to stand 
upon the top of the rampart, which may be followed through 
nearly its whole length on that south-western side of the 
station. Traces of the ditch in front of this face of the for- 
tification could recently be seen, but it is now filled up with 
rubbish and a road formed in it. The lane called Northampton 
Street, by which an entrance is obtained into the town from 
the St Neots road, seems to be carried along the bottom of 
the rampart, which passing to the south of St Giles's church, 
defended the south-eastern side in the time of the Romans. 
Perhaps there was no ditch on this side, it was sufficiently 

1—2 



defended by the river, a branch of which ran close to it, as 
we learn from the foundation deeds of St Giles's church, 
preserved in the Cottonian Library (Gough's Camden, 130). 
The continuation of this river-face of the fortification is 
well seen in Magdalene College garden, where a terrace-walk 
is formed upon the vallum, and the garden upon what was 
the bed of the river. The line of Roman fortifications may 
still be traced for a short distance along the north-eastern side 
of the old town between the Ely road and the Cromwellian 
works near the Castle Hill. Half of the north-western side 
also has been levelled. The extent of the site was measured 
by Dr Stukeley, who, however, erroneously includes Pytha- 
goras School, more correctly called Merton Hall, within the 
walls, and found by him to be " 2500 Roman feet from east 
to west, and 2000 from north to south." Even allowing for 
the error of including Pythagoras School within the station, 
it is very difficult to conjecture by what mode Dr Stukeley 
obtained such a large extent for it. The Roman foot is 
scarcely -fa of an inch shorter than the English foot, and the 
real extent of the station (taking the measurements from a 
recent survey) is about 1650 feet from north to south, and 
1600 from east to west, measuring diagonally, as Stukeley 
seems to have done ; or the north-east and south-west sides 
are each about 1320 feet long, and the north-west and south- 
east about 930 in length 1 . 

Bowtell states that some remains of the Roman wall were 
found in 1804 ; his words are : " On the interior side of this 
fosse stood a very ancient wall, some remains, whereof were 
discovered in March 1804, when 'improvements' were making 
thereabouts by destroying a part of the vallum towards the 
north-west end, which wall abutted eastwards on the great 
road near to the turnpike-gate. [This turnpike-gate was at 

1 The outline of the station is shewn by the broken line on the plan, 
where unfortunately the name of St Neots is misspelt. 



the point where the Histon road branches from that to Hunting- 
don.] The materials in the foundation of this wall consisted of 
flinty pebbles, fragments of Eoman bricks, and ragstone so 




firmly cemented that prodigious labour with the help of pick- 
axes, &c. was required to separate them. A part of the wall 
was consequently left undisturbed, and the fosse filled up with 



earth" (Bowt. MS. ii. 98). He also states that men digging at 
about the middle of the east side of the station met with the 
foundations of a stone building, supposed to be part of the 
Decuman Gate, and that directly opposite across the station 
similar foundations were seen in 1810 on occasion of the 
erection of the original building of the Old, then called the 
Lancastrian, Schools (ii. 99). Mr Bowtell measured one of 
many Roman bricks found on the edge of the fosse when the 
Gaol was built, and states it to have been 16 inches by 12 
inches, and from f to If in thickness (ii. 166). In 1804 at 
about 100 paces from the north-west side of the ditch, and to 
the west of the turnpike-road, several antiquities were found, 
such as a cornelian intaglio set in a finger-ring of silver, and 
representing Mercury with the caduceus in his left and a purse 
in his right hand ; also a bronze figure of Mercury, two inches 
high, with wings on his bonnet and feet, and holding a purse 
(Bowt. MS. ii. 175). Many Roman coins have been found near 
to the castle (Gough, Camden, ii. 219) from an early period ; 
and in 1802 and the seven following years, 41 of first brass, 
25 of second, and 86 of third brass, also 16 of silver, besides 
others of which 3 were British, were found there (Bowt. MS. ii. 
191). The following list of the Emperors, &c. is derived from 
Vol. vili. of Bowtell's MS. at Downing Coll., in which the coins 
are all fully described. They were: "of first brass, coins of Nero, 
Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, Faustina, 
Commodus, Didius Julianus, Macrinus, Severus Alexander, Julia 
Mammsea, Gordianus, Balbinus, Quintus Herennius Hostilianus, 
Julius Philippus. Of second brass, of Germanicus, Claudius, Ves- 
pasian, Trajan, Severus Alexander, Faustina, Probus, Antoninus 
Pius, Philippus, Gallienus, Carausius, Constantinus Chlorus, 
Valerius Severus, Decentius, Theodosius, Constans, Constantinus, 
Maximianus, Magnentius, Valerius Licinianus Licinius. Of 
third brass, of Claudius, Gallienus, Tacitus, Victorinus, Claudius 
Gothicus, Aurelianus, Tetricus, Carausius, Allectus, Fl. Max. 



Theodora, Cams, Helena, Constantinus, Posthumus, Constantius, 
Crispus, Constantinus Junior, Constans, Magnentius, Valentin- 
ianus, Valens, Theodosius, Gratianus, Arcadius, Honorius. 
The silver coins were of Trajan, Hadrian, Faustina, Caracalla, 
Severus Alexander, Posthumus, Domitian, Gordianus, Otacilla 
Severa, Philippus." 

A second brass coin of Otacilla was found near the castle 
in 1846 (Gamb. Antiq. Soc. Gat. of Coins, 13) ; a second brass of 
Vespasian at the same place and date (1. c. 7) ; and in 1852 a 
first brass of Gordianus, and a second brass of Nero. The coins 
have chiefly belonged to the lower empire. Indeed coins are 
constantly being found on the site of Camboritum. 

But such discoveries are not confined to that site, for coins 
are often found in Modern Cambridge and at Barnwell. Coins 
of the lower empire, as of Constantine, Licinius, and other of 
the later emperors, and of the type inscribed URBS . roma have 
been dug up in Sidney Street. At Barnwell an Antoninus Pius 
with the reverse Britannia was found in 1853. Others need 
not be enumerated, as enough has been stated to shew that 
such coins are not uncommon. 

Urns, Paterae embellished with figures, Querns, Lachry- 
matories, Armillae of bronze, a variety of Amphorae and frag- 
ments of green and blue glass were found near the castle in 
1802—6 (Bowt. ii. 166, 167, 168), and also more recently urns 
have been found there. 

Stukeley thought that there was a ford at the " Great Bridge," 
near Magdalene College (Itin. Cur. 78). Mr Essex says, that 
when he was superintending the excavations for the foundation 
of the Great Bridge in 1754, he saw those of the ancient stone- 
bridge over the river Graunt, built on piles. It consisted of two 
small round arches as he learned from finding some of the 
stones that formed the arch. Mr Essex does not call this 
bridge Roman but only "very ancient." He says that there 
was probably a paved ford there in the time of the Romans, 



which "very plainly shewed itself in the year 1754 as a firm 
pavement of pebbles." At the same time he states that several 
pieces of Roman antiquities were found, one of them being a 
weight, which Dr Stukeley called a representation of Carausius's 
supposed Empress Oriuna (Bowt. v. 944, 945). In Lysons's 
Cambridgeshire (44) Mr Essex is stated to have considered 
the bridge to be Roman, and that the ford was an idea of 
Stukeley's. (See also Beliq. Gal. 53.) 

Mr Benjamin Bevan, son of the engineer who superin- 
tended the erection of the present Great Bridge, kindly 
placed in the author's hands some of his father's papers 
relative to its erection, which took place in the year 1823. 
This bridge was preceded by one of stone erected in 1754, 
and which was itself the successor of a series of wooden bridges 
replacing each other from a period closely succeeding if not 
preceding the Norman conquest. We have seen that in 1754 
Mr Essex saw the foundations of an ancient round-arched 
stone bridge when excavating for the bridge of stone erected by 
him. Mr Essex's bridge was removed in 1823 to make way for 
the present iron bridge. In digging down to the foundation of 
the south abutment on Sept. 26, 1823, Mr A. Browne, the con- 
tractor, found it to be "very different from that on the north 
side ; it is one course of stone deeper than that, and the stone 
and masonry is laid on two courses of bond timber (laid across 
each other), each about GJ or 7 inches thick by 13 or 14 inches 
wide. The timbers in each course are laid close to each other, 
and form an uniform mass of timber about 13 inches thick 
under the whole abutment.... I think there are no piles under 
it. It is 9 feet 11 inches from the high water-mark to the 
bottom of the stone-work, and about 11 feet to the bottom of 
the lowest course of timber. The soil under the old abutment, 
and where we are excavating for the new part [the new bridge 
is wider than the old one], is as strong and firm a gault as I 
have ever seen, without any springs of water in it, as on the 



9 

other side" {Letter from Mr A. Browne to B. Bevan, Esq., 
dated 26 Sept. 1823). On the 29th and 30th of September 
Mr Bevan was at Cambridge, and a minute of his instructions 
shews that he left the old bed of timber undisturbed, merely- 
extending it so as to form a foundation large enough for the 
new bridge. He states that he " found the planks spiked down 
very firm," and "the lower course of hewn Totternhoe stone 
set on a thin course of about three inches of clay." It is not 
clear to what date this timber foundation ought to be referred, 
but it has appeared desirable to record its existence. Tottern- 
hoe is in Bedfordshire, and not far from the Iclcnield Way, and 
therefore possessing an easy means of communication with 
Cambridge from a very early period. 

"A Lachrymatory" was found in removing the foundations 
of the old Provost's Lodge of King's College, which stood 
between the present front of the College and King's Parade. 
A small Roman vessel was found in the excavation for a 
sewer in Park Street in 1848. A patera of Samian ware, and 
a lachrymatory of white clay were found at the south-west 
corner of Northampton Street in 1847 (C. A. S. Museum). 
It is stated in Gough's Camden that Roman bricks were to 
be seen in his time in the north-west corner of St Peter's 
church-wall. 

In excavations made in the garden of Trinity Hall in 1880, 
close to Garrett's Hostel Lane, many Roman remains were 
found, at the depth of a few feet, but all broken (G. A. S. Report, 
March 1, 1880). The excavators met with " (a) garden soil and 
recent debris, 1 — 2 ft. ; (b) earth containing bones, pottery, &c, 
referred to a period dating back from the xvnth cent, to 
earlier mediaeval times, 2 J — 3| ft. ; (c) pits with black earth, 
bones, pottery, &c, of Roman age, of irregular depth : some 
were bottomed at about 10 ft. from the surface ; (d) low river- 
terrace gravel." " In (c) there were the usual layers of oyster 
shells, muscles, bones of animals which had been used for food, 



10 

and broken pottery. There were many fragments of a dark 
ware, differing in form from the common types found at 
Chesterford, and a few bits of Samian ware, one of which was 
a small saucer with a simple pointed leaf-pattern around the 
margin ; another was a piece of a handsome basin with a winged 
figure and part of a hunting scene in relief. Also a nearly- 
perfect mortarium and some bits of glass were found." 

That there was a tolerably large station here in the time of 
the lower empire cannot be doubted ; but the name borne by it 
does admit of doubt. This question was discussed at great 
length by the antiquaries of the eighteenth century. It seems 
most probable that it is the Camboritum of the Itineraries 
which are peculiarly confused in their reference to this district. 
That name is given to this station by Gale (Anton. 92), where he 
derives it from " Gam, ' fluvius,' rhyd, ' vadum'." He is gene- 
rally believed to be correct ; but Stukeley (Car. ii. 139) places 
that station at Chesterford, and Horsley (Brit. Rom. 430) at 
Icklingham. In the same manner Durolipons has been placed 
at Godmanchester, which is now generally allowed to be its 
true site, at Ramsey, and even at Cambridge. Cambridge is 
the Caer Graunt of Nennius (ed. Gale, 115), for I cannot agree 
Avith those who place that " city " at Grantchester where, as I 
hope to shew, there was only a small fort. Stukeley (Car. ii. 
1G0, &c.) invented a city of Granta which is unknown to 
antiquaries, but which he supposed to have been founded by his 
favourite Emperor Carausius after the compilation of the 
Itineraries. The name given by Nennius is doubtless a fact 
in his favour. To conclude, in the words of Bishop Bennet 
after he had carefully examined the subject, " I feel myself 
incompetent to affix any certain name to the station at Cam- 
bridge, although, if I was obliged to decide, I should on the 
whole prefer that of Camboritum." The late Dr Guest told me 
that he thought that Cambridge was derived from Cam-to-brig. 

The position of this fortified town was well chosen, for it 



11 

is situated on one of the most commanding spots to be found in 
the district. Its site is the projecting extremity of a low range 
of hills, backed by a slight depression, or broad and shallow 
valley. On at least two of its sides the ground fell away rather 
rapidly from the foot of the ramparts, and the river defended 
the fourth side. It fronts the only spot where the river could 
be easily passed by the Roman way now called the Via 
Devana, or indeed approached without traversing extensive 
morasses. Grantchester possesses none of these advantages, nor 
is it situated upon either of the great Roman roads. 

It is highly probable that the Saxon town of Orantabrigge 
stood upon the same site as the Roman Camboritum, and that 
it was at a late period, perhaps even after the Norman conquest, 
that the principal part of the town was transferred to the 
south side of the river. May not the construction of the Norman 
castle have been a promoting cause of this removal of the popu- 
lation, as was the case at Lincoln ? The Domesday Survey 
informs us that twenty-seven houses were destroyed for the 
purpose of building or enlarging the castle at Cambridge, and 
that what had constituted two of the wards of the town in the 
time of King Edward the Confessor was then, on account of this 
destruction of the houses, considered as forming only one ward 
{Domesday Book, i. 189). But it is worthy of remark that the 
existence of the very ancient church of St Benedict shews that 
there was a settlement in the heart of what became Cambridge, 
before the time of the Normans. 

Perhaps the Caer Graunt of the Britons is represented by 
the village of Grantchester, to which a British trackway will be 
shewn to have led, and that the Romans, finding the situation 
better suited for their purposes, founded Camboritum at 
Cambridge. A similar event seems to have taken place at 
Norwich, where the present city represents the British town, 
and Caister the Roman fort in its neighbourhood (see Wood- 
ward's Norwich). This would remove much of the difficulty 



12 

which attends the determination of the sites of Caer Graunt, 
Camboritum, Grantaccester and Grantebrigge ; indeed all, if 
Bede is allowed to have been as misinformed concerning the 
true name of the spot where St Etheldreda's coffin was found 
as he was of its material (Gaii Hist. Canteb. Acad. 8 1 ). 

It must however be added that the Castle Hill, which is 
situated within the walls of Camboritum, is manifestly one of 
the ancient British tumuli, or rather perhaps look-out posts, so 
often found to occupy commanding sites, and to have been 
fortified in after times. The lower part of the hill is natural, 
but the upper half is in all probability artificial. The existence 
of this tumulus and the want of any ascertained British remains 
at Grantchester throw doubt upon the suggestion that Caer 
Graunt was there ; as indeed does the name of Chesterton 
being given to the parish adjoining the Roman town to the 
north-east. It is remarkable that although the site of the 
Castle is within the walls of Camboritum it is nevertheless 
in the parish of Chesterton. Indeed the name of this village 
of Chesterton has excited much curiosity. Unfortunately we 
do not know when the name was first used to designate 
that parish. It may have been the site of a village when 
Camboritum was in ruins. The late Mr T. Wright thought 
that there was an outpost there, similar to that at Grantchester, 
but gives no reasons for his opinion (Celt, Roman and Saxon, 
Ed. 2, p. 134). No traces of Roman work have been noticed 
at Chesterton. 

It may be allowable to remark here that the difficulties 
attending some of the Itineraries of Antoninus are very great, 
owing probably in part to the corruption of the text, but also 

1 Bede informs us that the nuns of Ely sent to Grantacsester and 
obtained a fine white marble sarcophagus to use at the translation of the 
remains of Etheldreda, but we learn from Caius that when the shrine was 
removed in ttie reign of Henry VIII. the coffin was found to be formed of 
common stone. 



13 

from the circuitous course taken by them. In that route with 
which we are interested, viz. the Iter v., it certainly does seem 
very remarkable that the traveller should be led from Loudon 
to Colchester on his way to Lincoln ; more especially as we find 
the Erming Street forming an almost direct communication 
between the two places. On examining the Iter vi. we find 
another route connecting the same stations of Londinum and 
LlNDUM, but deviating from the direct course to about as great 
a distance to the west (to Daventry) as the Iter v. does to the 
east. This may perhaps be explained by supposing that these 
Itineraries were not meant to give a list of the stopping-places 
upon the great roads of Britain, but are derived from the note- 
book of some person visiting officially the different stations, and 
taking such a course as would most conveniently admit of his 
doing so. Indeed there is only one place of any apparent 
importance which is situated upon the southern part of the 
Erming Street, and not visited in one or the other of these 
journeys, viz. Ad Fines, which is placed at Braughing in Hert- 
fordshire. An anonymous writer, who has published The Roman 
Roads in England, under the signature " A. H.", suggests with 
much probability that in Iter v. Villa Faustina was at Wood- 
bridge and Iciani at Dunwich, the travellers returning from this 
latter place to Colchester and proceeding along the Via Devana 
to Cambridge, which he names Camboritum. By this scheme the 
number of miles between the stations accords reasonably well 
with those stated in the Itineraries, and if the object of the 
journey was such as I have above supposed to be probable, this 
deviation will not be looked upon as unlikely to have taken 
place. The late Lord Braybrooke considered Iciani to have been 
at Chesterford, but does not, as far as I am informed, explain 
how he made that idea accord with the Itineraries (Journ. 
Archceol. Assoc, iii. 208). If the usual idea of the Itineraries 
forming a kind of road-book is adopted, we find many undoubt- 
edly important Roman roads unnoticed in them. For instance, 



14 

the Akeman Street which passes through Cambridge is omitted, 
and also that part of the Via Devana which lies to the north - 
west of this town. 



II. ANCIENT KOADS THROUGH CAMBRIDGE. 

Two great lines of road passed by or through Camborittjm, 
crossing each other nearly at right angles ; namely, (1) The 
Akeman Street, which starting from the north coast of Norfolk 
terminated by a junction with the Foss Way at Cirencester 
(Corinium) ; and (2) the so-called Via Devana leading from 
Colchester (Colonia or Cameloduntjm) to Chester (Deva). 
(3) Some fancied roads from Cambridge are noticed after the 
description of these. 

The other roads that passed through any part of the county 
were (4) the Erming Street, (5) the Icknield Way, (6) the 
Ashwell Street, (7) the Peddar Way, (8) the Fen Road, (9) 
the Ely and Spalding Way, (10) the Suffolk and Sawtry Way, 
(11) the Aldreth Causeway, (12) the Bury, Wisbeach, and 
Spalding Way, (13) the Bullock Way, (14) Cniit's Dyke. 

1. The Akeman Street. — (1) Cambridge to Brancaster. 
It left the northern angle of the station at Camborittjm, and 
could be traced over the open fields to King's Hedges as a 
track for carts, but has recently been obliterated on the 
inclosure of the parish of Chesterton. A Roman vase of reddish 
ware, full of fragments of flint, was found on Blackamore Piece l 
on the south side of the road close to the town, in 1862. I have 
often walked along this road to King's Hedges, where there is a 
large oblong camp on its southern side, which may be of .Roman 
origin, as Roman coins (particularly one of silver with the head 

1 Blackamore Piece was named from Alderman Blackamore, who lived 
in the xivth century. 



15 

of Roma on one side and Castor and Pollux on horseback on the 
reverse) have been found there (Gale, Anton. 92 ; Gough's 
Camden, ii. 226, from the Aubrey MS.). Or, as seems more 
probable, King's Hedges camp may have been made by William 
I., who is believed to have occupied it during his war with the 
Anglo-Saxons of the Isle of Ely. On the side of this camp 
bounded by the Roman Road a large ditch was perhaps not to 
be expected, but upon the other sides there must undoubtedly 
have been ditches if it was of Roman origin. Scarcely any traces 
of large external ditches are now to be seen ; such may, neverthe- 
less, have been there ; for the embankment, which has been of 
enormous width, is now so much lowered by the removal of the 
soil as to be throughout the greater part of its extent only 
faintly traceable. The camp is situated in a quite level country, 
and is large enough to have been the site of a Roman station ; 
whereas if belonging to that people it can hardly have been more 
than a castrum cestivum. If a Norman work its size is not an 
objection, for the armies of that period, consisting chiefly of 
cavalry, required a very large space relatively to their number. 
Careful measurements give the following dimensions for this 
encampment : 

Length parallel to the Akeman Street . . . 738 yds. 

Width 295 

Thickness of the embankment in the best 

preserved parts 13 

The corners are rectangular. 

Also, at a short distance from the road on the other side 
there is a camp of the form of a four-centred arch called 
Arbury, which may have been used by the Romans, as seems to 
be generally supposed, but from its shape is most probably of 
British origin. The cord of the arch is nearly obliterated, but 
as far as can be made out it was about 286 yards in length, and 
is said to have been very lofty. The width of the ditch, or of 



16 

the bank, cannot be determined as they are nearly destroyed by 
cultivation. Both these camps are in Chesterton parish, 
although one side of each of them forms part of its boundary. 
I do not know of any camp or fort nearer to that village, which 
is about two miles distant. Coins of silver and copper of 
Trajan, Hadrian, and Faustina have been found at Chesterton, 
as I learned from Mr E. Litchfield ; also one of Carausius now 
in Dr Churchill Babington's collection. From King's Hedges 
the road still exists in the form of a country lane, in some parts 
presenting the usual raised form of Roman roads, as far as 
Landbeche, where a coin of Carausius, also in Dr Babington's 
collection, was found in 1861, and other small coins are often 
found ; and may then be faintly traced to its junction with the 
Cambridge and Ely road near Denny Abbey. There it bore 
slightly to the right of the present road, and crossed the Old 
Ouse " at a ford near an Ozier-holt, half a mile below [Stretham] 
ferry," " having crossed the road and ditch and being visible 
until it dips into the fen " (Bennet in Lysonss Gamb. 45) ; then 
(passing by the east end of Grunty Fen) was continued to 
near Ely. 

Mr W. Marshall of Ely has a first brass coin of Trajan, 
which was found in 1853 near to the Ely Poor-house ; and 
about 30 much defaced Roman coins found near that city are in 
the museum there. Amongst these occur coins of Vespasian, 
Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Carausius and Gratian ; and 
there are also two bow-shaped fibulas in the same collection 
(Arcliceol. Journ. xix. 365). Mr Marshall Fisher says (I.e.) 
that there was undoubtedly a " Roman camp" at about two 
miles to the S. W. of Ely, where he has collected numerous 
fragments of pottery and other Roman relics. This spot is 
probably situated near to Witchford, to the south of the Ely 
and Witchford road and just to the north of a road running 
parallel to it at about a quarter of a mile distance. 

In Coveney Fen, not far from Ely, two fine bronze circu- 



17 



lar shields, now in the Cambridge Antiquarian Society's collec- 
tion, were found in 1846. They are fully described and illus- 
trated by four beautiful plates in the Quarto Publications of the 
C. A. S. (Vol. II.), and their backs shown by the two cuts 
here given : the curious bosses and fasteners (?) being repre- 




sented of the full size, the shields themselves of one-eighth of 
the true size. 

From Ely the road went to Littleport, where it crossed the 

Old Ouse river. Stukeley derives the name of that place from 

Porth, the Welsh term for a road {Car. 143). A gold coin of 

Valerianus has been found at Littleport. The road then went to 

B. 2 



18 

a farm called Cold Harbour, or Cobam, as Dr Bennet names it, 
wbere be informs us tbat the track was " visible." This farm is 
situated on the boundary of the county of Cambridge. We then 
pass into Norfolk, when the road seems to have turned to the 
right in order to cross the Little Ouse river to Southery, in 
and near to which place Roman vessels have been found and 
also Roman coins, but mostly in very bad preservation. In 
G runty Fen, near Ely, a gold torque, weighing 4 oz. and 3 




grains, and 42 inches long exclusive of the solid ends, was found 
in 1845, having three bronze palstaves lying above it (C. A. S. 
Museum).. At a place called Little Shallows in Burnt Fen, 
near Prickwillow, which is not far from the line of this, road 
after passing Ely, a bronze vessel resembling a saucepan, with 
an ornamented flat handle, bearing the maker's name, BOD- 
VOGENVS. F., was found in 1838 (Archceol. xxviii. 436, t. 25). 

• Also parts of two copper mirrors were discovered in Burnt 
Feu, 1852. One of them seems to have been 5 inches in 



19 

diameter. Also, what was probably the handle of another, about 
3 inches long, and beautifully moulded, was found at the same 
place. Likewise a hand of brass, 2J inches long, with the 
fingers extended and in contact, but the thumb placed at right 
angles to them. From the mass of metal remaining in the 
palm of the hand it would appear to have supported something 
which is lost. Several beads occurred at the same place; one 
of them was of blue glass, inlaid with a curious crole-pattern in 
white enamel ; another was of pale glass, streaked with faint 
lines from its imperfect vitrification. Part of a bronze fibula 
was also obtained from the same place. These things were all 
lying on the clay at the bottom of the peat, and coins of 
Hadrian, Yespasian and Constantine were found with them 
(Mr. I. Deck in Proc. Sitff. Soc. I. 312) ; as were also a first brass 
of Domitian, a first brass of Maximinus, a third brass of Con- 
stantine, a small Yalentinian, an Urbs Roma, a plated de- 
narius of Postumus, and some others illegible. 

Again returning to its old direction the road passed Hilgay 
and Denver, when it was crossed by what I call the Fen Road 
leading from near Peterborough to Swaffham in Norfolk, which 
will be noticed further on. These roads probably crossed each 
other at a spot named Stone Cross. To the south of the angle 
in the lane leading towards the south from that spot there 
seem to be traces of an old lane with a rather raised ridge on 
its eastern side, crossing the road and passing through Riston 
Park towards Hilgay Bridge. From Denver this Roman way 
went by Downham, and, passing near Lynn, to Castle Rising 
and Brancaster, which was probably the Brancodunum of the 
Romans. An account of the Roman works at the latter place 
as they existed in 1846 will be found in the Archaeological 
Institutes Norwich Volume (p. 9.). 

Although crossing the Fen country, this line of road is so 
laid down as to take the utmost advantage of the " high-lands." 
It first entered the fen near Denny Abbey, and escaped from it 

2—2 



20 

again after crossing the Old Ouse river, at a distance of about 
1 1 mile. It next left the " high-land " at Littleport to again 
pass the Ouse, and continued in the fen for about six miles, 
emerging from it after crossing the Little Ouse to Southery. 
Between Southery and Hilgay there is less than half a mile of 
fen, and similarly, there is about half a mile of it bounding the 
Stoke river, between Hilgay and Fordham on the way to 
Denver. Thus there were not more than nine miles of fen 
country to be crossed by the Roman Way between Cambridge 
and the high ground of Norfolk. We here see a beautiful 
example of the engineering skill of the Romans. Additional 
instances will be pointed out in the course of this treatise. 

(2) Gambridge to Cirencester. — Returning to Cambridge 
and starting in the opposite direction. The road was, in Bishop 
Bennet's day, to be " easily followed along the green balks in 
the fields at the back of the Colleges, until it falls into the 
common road from Cambridge to Barton at a tumulus." Un- 
fortunately both balks and tumulus have been removed, so 
that without his help we should have had little more than con- 
jecture to lead us to the belief of its having taken this course. 
The late Dr F. Thackeray informed me that about 1790 he 
was taken to the point where the Huntingdon and Barton 
roads now join, and shown this Roman road extending in both 
directions, as it is here described. It appears to have run 
parallel with the north-western side of Cambomtum. In the 
field opposite to Storey's Almshouses, when dug over for 
"coprolites" in April and May, 1871, interments were met 
with, and some Roman potter} 7 . This spot lay in the angle 
.between the Akeman Street and the Via Devana. Leaving 
the town at its western angle the road crossed the gardens 
and the Madingley road ; and soon afterwards the long lane 
leading from Burrell's Walk to the Coton footpath at about 
the middle of the last field on the right-hand side, then 
went close to the eastern end of the buildings of St John's 



21 

College farm (thus avoiding the angle of the Binn Brook) 
and joined the present Barton road at a little beyond Stone 
Bridge. On arriving at about the third mile-stone from 
Cambridge it was joined by a road from Grantchester, which 
will be noticed when describing the Via Devana. Then leav- 
ing the present road it passed through Barton church-yard, 
and, following a farm-track, rejoined the road to Wimpole 
near Lord's Bridge, at a little beyond which its raised crest 
was recently to be seen near to a tumulus called Hey Hill. 
This tumulus was opened by Dr E. D. Clarke in 1817, and a 
skeleton, but no antiquities, was found. It is scarcely now 
distinguishable. Near to the same place a chain with collars 
for conducting captives, and a double fulcrum to support a 
spit, both of iron, were found, and were presented to the Fitz- 
william Museum by Dr E. D. Clarke. The next year an 
amphora covered by a stone, and inclosing one black and two 
red terra-cotta vases, was found near to Hey Hill (Archceologia, 
xix. 56, t. 4). The Roman track then followed almost exactly 
the line of the present road. " It leaves Orwell to the left, 
mounts the range of hills not far from Orwell wind-mill, and 
descends straight by a hedge-row into a lane," probably the 
present road "crossing Lord Hardwicke's long avenue, and 
presently after the turnpike-road," which now represents the 
firming Street, "having Armingford," or, as it is called on the 
Ordnance map, Arrington " bridge on the left ; it then enters 
the closes on the opposite side of the road, and seems to have 
borne to the right towards the Roman station at Sandy" 
(Lysons's Camb. 46). On Orwell hill there is an ancient track- 
way diverging from it, and keeping on the crest of the hill with 
a curved course until it joins the firming Street at about three 
miles to the north of Arrington Bridge. It is called the Mare 
Way. Several miles to the north of this track there is a place 
named Caldecot, and to the north-east of that village, but in 
the parish of Hardwick, there is an old track-way called the 



22 

Port Way. These three names, as is justly remarked by the 
Rev. C. H. Hartshorne, are characteristic of spots occupied by 
the Romans. Rev. S. S. Lewis possesses a patera of red ware 
found at Orwell in 1870 and bearing the potter's mark under- 
neath paterati • of. At about a mile from Hey Hill, and 
just below the ridge upon which the church of Comberton 
stands, the remains of a Roman Villa were discovered a few 
years since in a bed of gravel. 




The following is the account of this Villa as described 
and shewn to me by the Rev. J. J. Smith, then of Caius 
College. In February, 1842, workmen employed in digging 
gravel on the low ground between Comberton Church and the 
Bourn Brook, found some massive brickwork, and immediately 
informed their master of it. He (Mr Wittett) caused the 



23 

earth to be carefully cleared away, and exposed to view the 
foundations of an extensive Roman building. The plan made by 
the Rev. J. J. Smith, which is here given (see woodcut) will best 
convey an idea of its form. Each of the piers consisted of 10 tiles, 
1| inches thick, and 8 inches square. The walls were 3 feet thick, 
and 3^- feet in height of them was standing. They consisted of 
masses of Ketton stone, chalk-marl, and immense flints, kinds 
of stone not found in that neighbourhood. The area was filled 
with fragments of Roman tiles and bits of coloured stucco and 
fresco-paintings, of which the colours continued quite bright. 
Flue tiles still shewed the action of the fire. A small Roman 
brick and two keys, fragments of glass and of coarse pottery, also 
three hair-pins formed of the fossil called Belemnite, were 
found. Coins bad for some time past been found at Com- 
berton. On the site in question two coins of Septimus Severus, 
one of Vespasian, one of Gallienus, one of Constantine, one of 
Gratianus, and one of Gordianus have been picked up. On one 
of the square tiles there is a remarkably distinct impression 
of a dog's foot, which must have been made when the tile was 
in the course of manufacture. (Similar marks have been found 
at Litlington.) Also on another there is a perfect impression 
of a shoe, furnished with nails like those used by country 
people at the present time. A small Roman lock and two 
keys, and much pale yellow pottery ornamented, with red 
lines, also a fragment of the top of a vessel with a well executed 
female face on one side, have been found at this villa. 

In the village, about 1| mile to the north of the villa, 
there is a "Maze" in excellent preservation. (Mr I. Deck, 
in Gamb. Chron. Mar. 5, 1842.) The spot called the "Maze" 
is just in front of the National School, and if it were not 
known to be ancient might .be passed without observation. 
It is angular in its outline tending to a square, and has 
from time immemorial been kept paved with pebbles by the 
villagers. The ditch and bank that once bounded it are nearly 



24 

destroyed. Its use and date I am unable to conjecture. There 
is said to be a similar " Maze " at Hilton, near Fenny Stanton, 
in Huntingdonshire. 

In the same newspaper (Oct. 2, 1842) some slight addi- 
tional information concerning the villa is given. A hexagonal 
room, with sides ten feet long and Avails two feet thick, had 
been excavated, and many fragments of glass, Samian pottery, 
and fresco painting found in it. This room was destroyed before 
Mr Smith's plan was made. A portion of the leaden pipe and 
two of the hollow flue tiles through which it passed ; two other 
tiles (measuring eighteen inches by eight) which formed the 
piers, and two beautiful upper millstones, nineteen inches in 
diameter, are in the Museum of the Cambridge Antiquarian 
Society. Also in the same collection there will be found a small 
earthen vessel, resembling the lid of a jar, formed of whitish 
clay, and coated with a red material so as to resemble the Samian 
ware. 

Gibson, in his treatise upon Antoninus, expresses an opinion 
that there probably was a Roman town at Comberton, indeed 
he hints that the name may be derived from Camboritum, 
and that place have been there situated. This idea does not 
seem to be well founded, nor does he place much dependence 
upon it, as he writes throughout his. book as if he was con- 
vinced that Camboritum was situated at or close to Cam- 
bridge. 

To return to the description of the Aheinan Street. In the 
opinion of Mr Hartshorne, with which I concur, the road did not 
go to Sandy, as was supposed by Dr Bennet, but " passed through 
Tadlow and Wrestlingworth," by a place called Cold Harbour 
(a name nearly always associated with Roman or British tracks) 
and Road Farm, both near to Biggleswade. " On the west side 
of that town, just below Caldecot Green, it is called Hill Lane, 
and thence it proceeds to the small circular encampment of Old 
Warden. In the immediate vicinity we meet with the well- 



known accompaniments of Roman positions, in Warden Street 
and Loes Bush " (Hartshorn e, Salop. Antiqua, 249), and Ickwell 
Bury. Where it may have run from thence I know not, but 
another branch of it seems to have gone by Stanford and Stan- 
ford Bury to Shefford (where the fine Boman antiquities pre- 
served in the Cambridge Antiquarian Society's Museum were 
found) and Ampthill, to botli which places it is taken by 
Dr Stukeley. A very full account of the discoveries at Shefford, 
made by Mr Tho. Inskip and others will be found in the 
Archceol. Joum. (xxxix. 275), from the pen of Mr Thompson 
Watson. As these interesting remarks refer to Bedfordshire 
they do not come within my plan, and the reader is referred to 
the Journal named for them. 

It seems probable that another track has reached Shefford 
from the Erming Street at Baldock by the way of Norton Bury, 
Stotfold, Etonbury, and Clifton Bury. Indeed this part of 
Bedfordshire seems quite full of places of Roman origin. 

Beyond Ampthill, Dr Stukeley states that it went by 
" Ridge way (so called from the road), Woburn, Little Brickhill, 
Winslow and Edgecot (so called from the road, agger) ; it enters 
Oxfordshire at Elia Castra, now Alcester, proceeds by Bicester, 
. . .to Stunsfield between Burford and Lechlade to Cirencester " 
(Car. ii. 144). He states that it is called Akeman Street in 
several parts of this course. 

There is an Akerman Street in Ely, now called Egreman 
Street. As I learn from the Rev. D. J. Stewart, it is so named 
in an old survey of Ely, A.D. 1416 — 17. It does not seem pro- 
bable that this had anything to do with the Akeman Street 
which, as it probably followed the course of the Littleport Road, 
must have been crossed by the Akerman Street nearly at 
right angles. Mr W. Marshall of Ely informs me that the 
name is written in ten different ways in old documents, viz. 
Akeman, Acreman, Agremony, Egremont, Egrinian, &c. 

Dr Bennet says concerning a supposed branch of this road 



26 

that " Dr Mason, who (being rector of Orwell) had many oppor- 
tunities of examining this ground, was of opinion that traces of 
another road were to be seen on the south side of the river near 
this place [Orwell], which he conceived to have been thrown off 
from this in some part of its course, and to have formed the 
communication between Cambridge and Verulamium." Of this 
supposed road nothing more is known. 

It must be remarked here that there is another ancient road 
also called Akeman Street, which appears to have started from 
Verulamium and passed by Tring and A}desbury to Alcester, 
where it joins the line above described. The application of the 
name to this road has been supposed to be an error of the 
maker of an old county map, but that seems unlikely, from the 
name being used, as I am informed, by the country people about 
Tring. 

2. ViaDevana*. — (1) Cambridge to Colchester. This road 
left the Cambridge station by its southern gate, immediately 
crossing the river close to the site of the present bridge, where 
the swampy borders of the river must from the nature of the 
spot have been narrow. 

My friend the late Mr W. G. Ashton informed me that in 
the year 1823 (when he resided in Bridge Street) an excava- 
tion was made for the formation of a great sewer, and that 
the late Mr Lestourgeon showed to him a Roman causeway 
in very good preservation, extending from near the Great 
Bridge to the church of the Holy Sepulchre, and occupying 
about half the width of the street on its eastern side. It 
was at about fourteen feet below the present surface of the 
ground, had black peat earth beneath it, and was covered by a 
few feet of the same kind of soil. It was formed of piles 
of wood driven into the ground. There were squared beams 
of wood (probably oak) placed upon the piles, and thus a 

1 It should be recorded here that this name, Via Devana, is not 
ancient, but it is not known at what time it was first used. 



27 

continuous road was formed of such a considerable width 
as to allow of its having been used as a way for horses. From 
the appearance of the soil, it was supposed to have been 
originally elevated a foot, or rather more, above the then 
surface of the bog, and thus to have formed a dry road to the 
spot where a Roman bridge is believed to have crossed the 
river, and of which the remains are said, as has been already 
remarked, to have been found by Mr Essex (Lysons's Camb. 44). 
The wood was in a good state of preservation, but had become 
black, as is usual with oak when long buried in a wet peat soil. 
The fact that it was at least fourteen feet below the surface of 
the present street shows that it must have been of great anti- 
quity; and there being several feet of the peat above it, proves 
almost conclusively that it had been disused and forgotten before 
this very ancient part of Cambridge was built. As Granta- 
csestir is stated by Bede (Hist. Lib. iv. c. 19) to have been 
desolate (civitatulam quandam desolatam) in the seventh cen- 
tury, there may have been sufficient time for the channel of the 
river to become obstructed at the bridge, and the height of the 
water being thus raised it would permanently cover the low 
boggy ground over which this causeway extended. Peat would 
then quickly form, and in a very few years bury the structure 
and preserve it for discovery in future ages. There does not 
seem to be any other period in the history of Cambridge at 
which these changes could have taken place, without the' pre- 
sence of a population which was interested in the preservation 
of such a work as that described ; and with such an interest it 
is not credible that the timbers should have been allowed to 
become totally buried, but would doubtless have been removed, 
and the whole structure raised so as to admit of its being used, 
or a different kind of causeway formed to replace that which 
had become useless. 

It may be interesting to remark, before we proceed with the 
description of the Via Devana, that somewhat similar Roman 



28 



structures of wood have been found in other parts of Britain. 
In the year 1849, or 1850, a railway was formed along the side 
of the river Mersey, at Wallasey Pool, near Birkenhead, and in 
the course of the excavations required in the works for it, a 
timber bridge was found, covered by 14 feet of silt, and 
9^ feet below the present highest level of the tides. As there 
was a solid bottom in this case, and rocky abutments, piles were 
not required, and the timbers rested upon the rock and upon two 
piers of masonry {Journal of the Architect. Archceolog. and His- 
toric Society of Chester, Pt. i. 55, and plate). Also, in Lancashire, 
a wooden causeway, called the Danes' Path, formed of pairs of 
piles supporting longitudinal timbers, has been traced for a mile 
and a half across the mosses of Rawcliffe, Stalmine, and Pilling, 
and is known to have extended for about the same distance 
further to the ancient sea-beach near Scronka {Proceedings and 
Papers of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, iii. 
121, and plate). What appear to be conclusive reasons are stated 
for its being considered as a Roman or Romano-British work. 
A similar work to that found at Cambridge was discovered in 
Kincardine Moss, in Scotland, and was undoubtedly a Roman 
work (Wilson's Prehist. Annals of Scotland, 34). Unfortunately, 
in the case of Cambridge, the attention of antiquaries was not 
directed to the discovery, and the interesting causeway was 
either destroyed to give place to the sewer, or again perma- 
nently buried under the street at such a depth as to be inac- 
cessible. Although I am myself satisfied, from the above 
account of the causeway (for which I am indebted to Mr 
Ashton's remembrance of what was shown and explained to him 
by the late Mr Lestourgeon, who was a gentleman much in- 
terested in archaeology), it is right to state that the late 
Mr E. Litchfield, who also remembered these excavations, did 
not believe that the piles and timbers which he saw were 
Roman. For the reasons already stated I am Unable to find 
any other period in the history of Cambridge to which to refer 



29 

them. It is very unfortunate that the work was not examined 
by some experienced antiquary. 

The road nearly followed the course of the modern streets 
of Cambridge, as far as the church of St Andrew the Great, 
which Dr Bennet states to be placed upon it. From thence it 
kept to the left of the present Hills' Road, along the highest 
part of the land between the fens of Cherry Hinton and Trum- 
pington. Traces of it were probably found in the form of 
a ridge of gravel, at the distance of three or four yards from 
that road, when the ground was trenched to form a plantation 
at the border of the Botanic Garden property adjoining the 
Hills' Road. This is, however, uncertain, as the subsoil of 
all that district is gravel, and the appearances may have been 
natural. Traces of it are much more certainly to be found at 
a little to the east of the Great Tithe Farm, where its ridge 
may still be seen crossing the private road to the farm, and in 
the next and one succeeding hedge as you proceed along its 
course towards the south. These traces, although now very 
faint, are interesting as confirmatory of Dr Bennet's statement, 
that it took this course ; a statement made before the enclosure 
and drainage of the lands, and therefore at a time when its 
ridge was doubtless to be easily observed. We next see it 
near Red Cross Farm, where it changed its direction so as 
to ascend the hill along the course of Worts' Causeway. Its 
ridge may be observed crossing the private road at a few 
yards to the north-east of the farm-house, in both the neigh- 
bouring hedges, and (looking back upon our course) across 
the whole width of the adjoining field, and in the hedge be- 
yond it; bearing in such a direction as to appear as if its 
destination was Grantchester, to which place a road, to be 
described presently, branched off here. It is probable that 
the curve in the Via Devana and the junction of these two 
ancient tracks took place at, or very near to, this latter hedge ; 
the line bearing from that point, in one direction straight to 



30 

( 'amboritum, and in the other nearly following the present 
course of the Worts' Causeway in an easterly direction, until it 
attained the top of the hill, where it regains its original nearly 
south-east course. The reason for this remarkable deviation 
from the usual direct line of the Roman roads is to be found 
in the formerly impassable character of Hinton Moor, which 
would have been encountered if it had been continued in a 
straight line to Cambridge. The only mode of reaching that 
place, without crossing deep morasses, being the very course 
which we have found that it followed, namely, along the 
narrow but slightly elevated ridge that separates Hinton 
Moor from the marshy track extending from Shelford to the 
river Cam, and along which the Vicar's Brook flows, which 
supplies the conduits in Cambridge with water. The road 
only deviates just sufficiently to avoid the wet country which 
near Red Cross extended a little to the west of the Worts' 
Causeway. 

It was supposed, says Horsley {Brit. Rom. 431), that a 
road from Chesterton, which must have crossed the river near 
to the present railway bridge, and kept to the east of Cold- 
ham's Common, joined the Via Devana at the top of the hill 
where we have now arrived ; but no trace of such a track 
having, it is believed, ever been observed, it is unnecessary to 
notice it further. 

At this point, where the road returns to its original 
direction, there are the remains of two tumuli, called the Two- 
penny Loaves, one of which was opened in 1778, and seven 
skeletons were found at its bottom ; six of them were laid 
close together and parallel, with their heads pointing due 
north, the other lay with its head directed due west, and 
its feet next the side of the nearest of the six (Nichols's 
Lit. Anec. vin. 631). At Fulbourn, which lies at a short 
distance to the north-east of this point, various British remains 
have been found, such as a leaf-shaped sword of bronze, a 



31 

spear-head of that metal, and others (Archceol. xix. 56, t. 4). 
Mr Litchfield had a bronze Roman key found at Fulbourn. 
Fulbourn has also produced two other leaf-shaped swords ; and 
the late Lord Braybrooke remarked at the meeting of the 
Archaeological Institute at Cambridge that a man named 
Richard Manning told him of " a square brick grave in which 
were some glass and pottery vessels which he saw broken by 
the workmen." 

Near Fulbourn some remarkable discoveries were made in 
1874. Mr James Carter thus describes them in the Cambridge 
Chronicle (May 10, 1874). He says: "In making a cutting 
through some rising ground, about half a mile on the Cam- 
bridge side of the Fulbourn Railway Station, the workmen 
came upon three pits or wells sunk in the chalk. They were 
about three feet from each other and situated upon the summit 
of the low hill through which the cutting was made. The 
largest of them, namely that nearest to the Fulbourn Station, 
was a circular shaft sunk about ten feet in the chalk. It was 
carefully built up, and the inside smooth, and coated with a 
layer of hard cement about, three inches thick. There was 
then a layer of coarse concrete about ten inches in thickness, 
which was reddened by the action of fire. At about six feet 
from the top the shaft was abruptly reduced in diameter from 
9 ft. 3 in. to 6 ft. 3 in., thus forming a set-off 20 in. wide. It 
was then carried down to a further depth of nearly four feet in 
the chalk. The inner surface of the lower and narrower portion 
was blackened, as if by the combustion of wood and other 
vegetable substances, and contained masses of black car- 
bonaceous matter. The workmen stated that at the bottom 
they found some slabs leaning obliquely against the sides, so as 
to construct a sort of flue for draught : but I saw nothing of 
this. 

" The upper and wider portion of the pit was filled partly 
by the surface soil, and below that there was a layer two to three 



32 

feet thick of a very soft calcareous deposit, which the workmen 
called 'butter.' The 'butter' was so soft that it could readily 
be rubbed into a paste between the fingers. I analysed this 
substance and found it to be composed of slaked lime, containing 
a considerable quantity of water. By exposure to the air it 
became quite dry and hard. Below and by the sides of this 
soft layer of lime was a layer of vesicular, spongy, calcareous 
matter, very light and composed of pure chalk, i.e. carbonate of 
lime. I imagine that this layer was formed by water filtered 
through the lime, of which it dissolved a considerable quantity, 
and subsequently deposited it, as evaporation took place, upon 
plants lining the shaft. It had not the least appearance of 
being produced by burning. 

"At the junction of the wide and narrow parts of the shaft 
there was a round-headed opening leading into a second ex- 
cavation by a passage 2 ft. 6 in. in length. This second pit was 
simply sunk in the hard chalk and not built up like the other 
pit. It was of equal diameter throughout ; not narrowed in 
the lower part. I could not detect any traces of the action of 
fire, except that the sides of the opening between the shafts 
were burned and reddened. The side of this second shaft 
opposite to the opening into the first was perforated by another 
similar opening, which led into a third opening, which ap- 
peared not to have been circular, but a cutting with parallel 
sides, the floor of which inclined upwards, and, as the workmen 
supposed, had led to the surface. 

" It is quite evident that the largest and deepest of these pits 
was used as a kiln of some kind : it could hardly have been for 
burning bricks or pottery ; nor could I detect the slightest 
evidence that it had been used for cremation, as was suggested. 
The presence of a quantity of slaked lime seems to prove that 
it was used as a limekiln. I suppose that the chalk was put 
into the upper and wider part of the kiln, and the fuel into the 
narrower and lower part. The opening would admit of the 



33 

removal of the lime and the introduction of fuel ; but it is not 
very evident what cau have been the use of the second pit. 

" We have no very positive evidence of the age of these pits, 
but as far as an opinion can be formed from the objects found 
in the surface soil by which they were partially filled they may 
perhaps be regarded as Roman. I saw no object which had 
been found in the lower part of the shafts, but the soil which 
filled the upper part contained broken pottery of both red and 
black Roman ware, and also human and other bones, such as 
ox, horse, and a horned sheep's. A good many human skeletons, 
perhaps as many as thirty, were discovered in making the 
cutting of about half a mile in length between the station and 
the pits. The soil also was full of fragments of pottery and 
bones of animals, all of very ancient date. The human teeth 
were ground down as if by the mastication of coarsely ground 
corn." Of course no remnant of this curious place remains. 

To return to the road : at a short distance to the west of 
the point at which we have arrived there is, upon the top of 
Gogmagog hill, a large rudely circular camp, called Vandlebury. 
It is 246 paces in diameter, has three ramparts and two ditches 
between them (Bowtell, MS. vii. 2641) and encloses about 13| 
acres. It was probably a work of the Britons, but is shown, by 
the discovery of coins, to have been occupied by the Romans. 
The coins were found in 1685, in digging the foundations of the 
house now belonging to the Duke of Leeds, which stands within 
the camp. They were of Valentinian I. and Valens ; a knuckle- 
ring and coins of Trajan and Antoninus Pius were afterwards 
picked up; in 1730, several large brass coins and a silver ring; 
and in 1752, a small brass coin of Nero (Gough's Camden, ii. 
138; Bibl. Topog. Brit. iii. 15; Gale, Anton. 93). A coin of 
Cunobeline has also been found there (Bowtell MS. ii. 96). 
The hills surrounding this place are now called Gogmagog, 
which i^ perhaps a corruption of Hogmagog, itself believed 
by Gale to have come from " Hoog macht, quod altum robnr 
B. 3 



34 

significat et naturae loci satis congruit." Vandlebury may 
have been the chief fort of the Vandals who were placed in 
Cambridgeshire by Probus and removed by Belisarius ; but is 
probably much older than their time. 

The road is now plainly distinguishable for many miles, 
with its crest highly raised, and is still used. It crossed the 
Ichiield Way, which is represented by the road from Ches- 
terford to Newmarket, at Worsted Lodge, passed about a 
mile to the south of Balsham, a short distance to the north 
of Horseheath Lodge, and entered Suffolk near Withersfield. 
In this part it is fully forty feet wide. Its course from 
thence to Colchester, by Haverhill and Halsted, it is unneces- 
sary to notice. In Cambridgeshire this part of the road 
goes by the name of Woolstreet, or Worsted. Near Vandle- 
bury and between the Woolstreet and Fleam Dyke there 
are many tumuli. At Barham Hall, near Linton, about two 
miles to the south of the road, there are some very unin- 
telligible intrenchments. They are situated in the first and 
second fields, beyond the inclosures of the Hall, on the way to 
Bartlow, between that road and the river Bourn, and have 
been supposed to be the remains of a camp. There are con- 
siderable traces of a scarped slope, but no ditch, upon the 
north-west and south-west sides of a large space ; and near to 
the entrance of the first field there is a deep trench, which 
does not seem to have any connexion with the supposed 
camp. 

In the parish of West Wickham several Roman coins were 
found in 1863, chiefly of the lower empire, those of Constan- 
tine, Tacitus and Claudius Gothicus were deciphered. Roman 
coins have also been found at Linton, near which place at 
Little Linton Roman pottery has occurred, as we learn from 
Lord Braybrooke. He has also a coin of Theodosius from 
Castle Camps, and a bronze ladle from Shudy Camps.f These, 
and all the other antiquities mentioned as found by him, are 



35 

probably still preserved in the museum which he formed at 
Audley End. 

On the opposite side of the brook called the Bourn and close 
to it, in the parish of Hadstock but adjoining the town of Linton, 
there was a Roman villa, which was exhumed by the late Lord 
Braybrooke in 1850 (for an account of it see Archceol. Journ. viii. 
27). Gough saw the bronze bust of a satyr found at Linton 
(Gough's Camden, ii. 138). In 1832 a boy found a vase con- 
taining many silver Roman coins in a field in the parish of 
Horseheath, belonging to S. Batson, Esq. Amongst them there 
were those of Nero, Vespasian, Titus, Domitian, Nerva, Trajan, 
Hadrian, the two Antonines, Faustina, and L. iElius Verus 
{Camb. Ghron. Oct. 5th, 1832, and Jan. 25th, 1833). At Bart- 
low, which is about two miles from the road, are the well-known 
Bartlow Hills, the examination of which attracted so much 
attention between forty and fifty years since (Archceol. xxv. 
1, t. 1 — 3, and xxvi. 300, t. 31 — 35). A third brass coin of 
Valens was found there (Archceol. xxvi. 463). The hills are 
formed of a succession of very thin layers of mould and chalk 
regularly alternating and horizontal. Mr I. Deck gave an 
account of the opening of one of them, in the Cambridge 
Chronicle (May 5, 1838), and of another afterwards (Ibid. 
May 2, 1840). But these places are not in Cambridgeshire. 

(2) Cambridge to Chester. Returning to Cambridge and 
proceeding in the opposite direction, the Via Devana passed 
out at the north-western gate of the station, just to the west of 
the present junction of the Huntingdon and Histon roads, 
and kept to the left of the line of the existing road, but 
" passed through the fields of the ancient hamlet called How's 
House, where a barrow containing several Roman coins was 
removed in making the present road " (Lysons's Camb. 44) ; 
by Lolworth hedges and Fenstanton to Godmanchester on 
its way to Leicester and Chester. In a field between Gravel 
Hill Farm and the Huntingdon road some large and small 

3—2 



36 



Roman funereal vases, broken pieces of Samian ware, and a 
few bits of Roman pottery (of the smoky kind) were found in 
1861, together with burned bones. These were apparently by 
the side of the " Via Devana." By the course of the same 
road two large stone coffins were found in 1862. They had 
their ends towards the road, and were sunk a little below the 
surface soil. The very perfect skeleton of a female was found in 
one of them quite undisturbed, and the stone coffin was unbroken. 
At the feet of this skeleton there were several glass bottle-shaped 




vessels (see cuts on this and the following page) and a small vase 
of the Roman period ; also an amulet of jet and the remains of 
two jet pins. The other coffin was larger and had been mended 
with two iron clamps (showing the value of the stone coffins at 
that time and place) : it contained nothing except the remains 
of the skeleton much disturbed, by water having obtained access 
to the coffin (Camb. Antiq. Comm. ii. 289). 

Two Roman-British urns of the ordinary coarse black 
pottery, and one of fine yellow ware with a narrow neck were 
found near the Observatory in May, 1878. 



37 

In 1881, during some alterations of the ground near Girton 
College, an extensive Anglo-Saxon cemetery was discovered. 
It seems to have been the quiet burial place of a peaceable 
time, which was probably of rather long continuance. Proof 
was found of interment by cremation and by inhumation. 




Many vases and ornaments such as fibulae and beads were 
found. 

It is not my intention to give any account of the Anglo- 
Saxon remains found here, but only of those of the Roman period. 
The former will, it is expected, be described in detail by Mr 



38 



Jenkinson in the Comm. of the Camb. Antiq. Society, and do 
not fall within the scope of this treatise. " The Roman remains 
consisted principally of the contents of two square wooden 
boxes, the form of which was clearly traced by the nails and 
the pieces of wood adhering to them. Each contained a glass 
cinerary vessel : of these one was square, the other hexagonal. 
Each contained an iron lamp with hooked rod for suspension, 




and other vessels of glass and of Samian and other ware. The 
marks on the Samian were all of known potters (PAVLLI.M., 
pavli-F- (sic), borilli • M., PATERATi • OF- ) ; a glass bottle bore 
on its flat bottom the circular legend, c • LVCRETI • FESTIVI, and 
an undecipherable mark in the centre." A glass patera showed 
impressed on the under side the figure <if a pelican. (Shown 



39 

on the annexed cut below; as also are the glass vessels found 
here ; all represented of |-th of the real size.) " There was 
also what appears to have been a large circular wooden object 
covered with thin bronze, along one side of which were rings 
and large hollow bosses of the same metal " (Jenkinsoris MS.). 
It is a curious fact that the successors of the Romans appear to 
have met with some of their fictile ware, and used it again to 
preserve the ashes of their own dead, for decidedly Roman vases 
were found with the Anglo-Saxon interments. 

Further researches led to the discovery of two ancient 
rubbish pits which contained Anglo-Saxon remains at the top, 




below them fragments of Roman pottery, lower down a fine 
lion's head represented of ^th the true size on the next page. 
It is formed of Ketton stone, and, although it has lost its 
nose and is otherwise rather injured, shows good workmanship. 
The torso of a military figure which had been about four 
feet high was found there. "The broad collar, the belt, the 



40 



close fitting coat, apparently of metal, and a short kilt-like 
garment peeping from under it are clearly visible. One of its 
arms had been raised" (Camb. Chron. May 13, 1882). 

But where did these ancient people dwell ? I can form no 
conjecture concerning the Anglo-Saxon village except that it 
was not very near to the spot selected for their graves. The 
Anglo-Saxon people seem to have usually avoided the contiguity 
of the ancient roads. 




Probably the Romans resided at or near to the spot which 
has from time immemorial been known as How-House, where a 
small Roman outpost from Camboritum was probably placed. 
See Camb. Univ. Reporter, No. 348 (1881), 596. 

At about three miles from Cambridge two stones were 
found in 1812, which are now preserved under the portico of 
the Fitzwilliam Museum : they are flattened with the angles 
rounded. Their measurements are : 



41 



No. 1. 



No. 2. 






ft. 


in. 




ft. 


in 


Height 


3 


6 


Height 


2 


8 


Girth 


o 


H 


Girth 


3 


3 


Width 


1 





Width 


1 


3 



Thickness 



Thickness 6 



From their great difference in shape it is hardly possible 
that they can have had any connection with each other, but 
are probably fragments of two monumental stones which stood 
contiguously by the side of the Via Devana. They were 



42 

(Oentlem. Mag. lxxxiii. Pt. 1, 524), found by Mr Henry Lloyd 
Biden, at that time a student of Trinity Hall, projecting from a 
bank near the present high road, at a distance of nearly three 
miles from Cambridge, in October, 1812. The inscriptions are 
rather difficult to understand. The surface of the stones is 
very rough but the letters are deeply cut and easy to see in 
certain lights. On No. 1, the lines all commence near the 
angle of the stone, upon one of its broader sides, and the first 
letters of each line range vertically. The first and third lines 
extend beyond the front face of the block, and are continued 
round the angle on the lateral face. The Inscription appears 
to be perfect, and was erected in honour of Constantinus Pius 
by the Fifth Legion (?) in the reign of his father Constantine the 
Great. This tends to prove that at least some part of the Fifth 
Legion was stationed at Camboritum at that period. No. 2 is 
imperfect owing to the upper part of the stone being lost. 

The following are accurate copies of the Inscriptions : 

No. 1. No. 2. 

IMPCAE LISSI 

FLAVI MVS 

VLEG CAESAR 

CONST 
A NTT 
NOPIO 
NOBCA 
. S 

There has been considerable discussion concerning No. l,for 
it is not known that the Leg. V., or any part of it ever was in 
Britain. But I am not aware that any other explanation of the 
inscription has been given ; but the third line may be read ULEC. 

At Boxworth, about eight miles from Cambridge, a gold 
coin of Vespasian was found in 1848 (Camb. Chron. Nov. 4, 



43 

1848). At Madingley at no great distance to the south of this 
road a third brass coin of Valentinian was found in 1855. 

(3) Grantchester and Barton Road. — It has been already 
stated that a road branched off from the Via Devana at Red 
Cross, and went to Grantchester. Of this we should have 
known nothing without the help of Bishop Bennet, who has 
given us the following account of it (Lysons's Camb. 45). He 
says that the Via Devana had the appearance of throwing off 
a branch to Grantchester, which " seems to descend imme- 
diately into Shelford Fen, where it disappears for a short time ; 
but as the ground rises on the west side of the fen, the road 
appears in its old line rising with it ; it then crosses the great 
London road, just to the north of the village of Trumpington," 
where it may still (1882), be just traced in the field to the left 
of the road to Trumpington as a raised bank. It then " goes 
straight down a green balk in the corn-field opposite, which soon 
becomes an old lane leading into Trumpington Fen, nearly 
opposite Grantchester Church : in the feu it is again lost, as 
these ancient roads often are, in low marshy ground ; but on 
crossing the river and coming again on the line of the road, it is 
found keeping its course as before in an old lane which passes 
through the village of Grantchester, becomes a more frequented 
way, leading to Barton, where it falls into the Roman way from 
Cambridge," as is stated above. The bishop adds : " It must 
not be concealed, however, that some antiquarians of the present 
day are not convinced of the existence of this vicinal way [as a 
Roman road] ; and though they confess it to have all the marks 
of a trackway used in ancient times, are inclined to account for 
these appearances by the supposition that when the Roman 
bridge and causeway [at Cambridge] were destroyed by the 
barbarians, travellers naturally looked on each side of the ruined 
station for the nearest fords, and crossed the Cam at Grant- 
chester and Chesterton, as they did the Ouse at Offord and 
Hemingford." But as signs of a raised road are to be seen 



44 

at Trumpington, I think that that idea is unfounded. Unfor- 
tunately an interval of seventy or eighty years has rendered it im- 
possible to trace much of this road. Between Red Cross and the 
river at Grantchester all is either nearly destroyed by cultivation 
or swallowed up in the former fens, now drained and cultivated ; 
during that part of its course, therefore, we must be satisfied 
with the fact, that in Dr Bennet's days there was manifestly an 
ancient road passing in that direction. On the Grantchester 
side of the river it fortunately happens that two fields have not 
been subjected to the plough, and there the road may still bo 
traced, not however, as stated by Dr Bennet " in an old lane," 
but proceeding from a ford as a hollowed way in a direct line 
across the fields to the junction, in the village, of the present 
roads from Cambridge and Barton, along the latter of which it 
went nearly but not quite to the end of the village ; and then, con- 
tinuing the same straight course, it proceeded along a bridle-track 
direct to Barton. As the whole of the latter part of this course is 
still used as a road, none of the ancient work is to be seen (indeed 
in similar soils to that of this part of the county, the ancient 
tracks are usually found to have lost their original form, and not 
to differ in appearance from common field roads); but it is 
exactly the line described in the above extract. The idea that 
the course described is the true one, is rendered more probable 
by the discovery of a square fort adjoining the side of it at 
Grantchester. 

This Roman fort (see opposite) is situated at a short distauce 
from the river, and considerably raised above it so as to com- 
mand the ford. It is at the southern end of the large field in 
which the foot-path from Cambridge forks, and the sunken road 
from it to the river is crossed by the continuation of the path 
that leads to the church soon after it enters the next field. The 
fort can never have had much strength, but was doubtless 
sufficient to protect the detachment which probably was sta- 
tioned here to defend the only ford which at that time seems 



45 




40 

likely to have existed for many miles above Cambridge, until 
assistance could be obtained from that large town not more 
than three miles distant. Only a small part of the inclosure is 
observable ; the whole of two of the sides and a portion of each 
of the others being obliterated by the roads and buildings of the 
modern village. The north-eastern angle is very distinct, and 
what is probably the greater part of the north side is well pre- 
served. That side was defended by two ditches, with a low flat 
ridge resembling a raised road between them. There is no 
bank on the outer side, but the outer ditch is now about 3 
feet deep ; the central ridge then rises a little more than 1 
foot, and is 11 feet broad ; then succeeds the other ditch, 
on the inner side of which the bank is 4 feet high, thus 
raising the rampart about a foot above the general level of the 
field. The whole width of this system of ditches is 40 feet, 
and the existing length of this side of the fort is 324 feet. 

The eastern side remains tolerably perfect to the extent of 
189 feet, and was defended by a ditch of about 4 feet in 
depth, but of which the width cannot be ascertained, owing to 
the presence of a hedge and bank. At a distance of 187 feet 
from this eastern side, and parallel to it, there are faint traces 
of a road or street crossing the station, and slightly sunk below 
the general level. It communicates with the northern boundary 
ditch, and is probably the road so commonly found to pass 
through the centre of a Roman camp ; of the other which 
generally crosses it at right angles there is no trace. If this 
idea is correct, we may conjecture that the fort was 127 yards 
long. Of its breadth we have no such means of judging, but it 
appears to be probable, from the nature of the ground, that it 
was about 75 yards. 

It may be justly asked, how do you know that this was a 
Roman fort ? To which it can only be answered, that there is 
nothing more than great probability in favour of that opinion ; 
and that it greatly resembles other forts constructed by that 



47 

people. I am glad to be able to strengthen my own opinion 
on the matter by adding that of my friend the late Mr A. Taylor, 
an antiquary whose attention was especially directed to the 
roads and stations of the Romans in Britain, and whom I had 
the pleasure of conducting to Grantchester in search of a 
Roman station and road. He remarked upon seeing these 
banks that it was undoubtedly a Roman work. 

To return to the road. In the extract from Dr Bennet's 
sketch given above, the road to this fort from Red Cross has 
been traced to the banks of the river, and it is also stated that 
it did not follow the course from that point laid down by him 
until it reached the middle of the village at the junction of the 
Cambridge and Barton roads. As the north-western angle of 
the fort was situated almost exactly at the junction of the 
above-mentioned modern roads, and the track from thence to 
Barton has been already described, we may now turn back 
from that point and connect it with the bishop's line at the 
river. It is certainly curious to find that this well-preserved 
part of the road is not elevated, as is usual with Roman roads, 
but appears as a slight trench, continuing nearly but not quite 
in a straight line the trenches which form the northern side 
of the fort. It may be very clearly traced through the in- 
terval between the fort and the river, to which it attains by 
a gradual slope formed by a rather deep cutting in the some- 
what abrupt bank overhanging the stream. On the opposite 
side of the river, in Truinpington Fen, there is a gap in the 
bank forming a gradual descent to the water, which is now 
used by cattle as a watering-place, and is the only break in 
that bank for a very considerable distance. Shall I be 
considered as too bold if I state my strong suspicion that it is 
a trace of the ancient ford ? The modern embankment further 
back from the stream has effectually obliterated the road 
almost as soon as it attained the level of the adjoining land. 
I cannot pretend to account for the fact of this road appearing 



48 

as a trench, but it may be remarked, that British roads are 
often, perhaps always, sunk below the general level of the 
country, and have usually a slight bank on each side ; and that 
this road may have been found in existence by the Romans 
and, as being a track of very little consequence after the 
foundation of Camboritum, have been left by them in its 
original state, but the small fort thrown up as a shelter for the 
detachment placed there to command this important ford. Roman 
coins have occasionally been found at Grantchester 1 , but I have 
seen only two of them belonging to the Emperors Valen- 
tinianus and Constantinus Junior. 

At Dam Hill (or Gravel Hill as otherwise named), a place 
where gravel was formerly obtained in the parish of Trumpington, 
but situated at about a quarter of a mile back from the bridge 
over Vicar's Brook, on the road from Cambridge, many Roman 
urns have been found in what appears to have been an ex- 
tensive cemetery. It is recorded in Dr Warren's MSS. now in 
the possession of Trinity Hall, that about the year 1711 several 
patera, urns, &c. were found in digging gravel at that place. 
The potter's marks on the paterse were, OF ■ LIC1NI., of . mrrai., 
masclervs, and damoni. (Bowt. MS. ii. 179) ; also a large urn 
with bones in 1733. A coin of Trajan has been found there 
(Ibid. 189). Dr Mason records (Gough's Camden, ii. 131) the 
discovery of many curious paterae of fine red earth : one large 
vase three feet long, brass lagenae, a brass dish embossed, the 
handle of a sacrificial knife, the brasses of a pugillaris or table- 
book, some large bones and Roman coins. They are preserved 
in the Library of Trinity College. Dr Stukeley possessed in 
1751 a Roman cup and saucer entire of fine red earth, which 
were dug up at Trumpington (Weld's Hist, of Royal Society, i. 
527). Three urns of rude workmanship found in that parish, 



1 Grantchester bore the name Grenteset at an early period. See 
Inquis. Com.. Cantabrig. 70. 



49 

and which were formerly in the possession of the Rev. J. Hail- 
stone, late vicar, are in the Cambridge Antiquarian Museum. 

Not far from the ancient line of road from Grantchester to 
Red Cross a funereal vase was found in 1879, and exhibited at 
the meeting of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society on May 13 
and March 1, 1880. Some other Roman apparently sepulchral 
remains found at about the same spot were also exhibited ( Univ. 
Reporter, 1880, p. 356), amongst them a cinerary urn of about 
12 in. in height. 

The late Mr Alex. Watford, who was employed, as he 
stated to the Rev. J. J. Smith, to survey at least four-fifths of 
the parishes near Cambridge, considered that there was a road 
which would continue this track from Barton by Toft to join 
the Erming Street at Bourn. This would pass by Comberton 
church, and therefore just above the Roman villa already 
mentioned, and by Toft church, near which remains were found 
at a place called Priory Field, not far from the brook, in 
December 1851, by some labourers digging gravel. At about 
three feet below the surface they found seven skeletons. Six of 
the bodies had been placed side by side with their feet towards 
the west, and the seventh lay across their legs. Fragments of 
" Roman pottery, a portion of a lamp and paterae " were found 
close by the skeletons (Camb. Chron. Dec. 27, 1851). An 
instance of a nearly similar arrangement of seven bodies has 
been already mentioned (p. 30). Then this supposed road would 
pass by a place called Kingston Stones to Bourn, where two urns 
called Roman, and half a quern formed of pudding-stone, were 
found in 1813 (Archceol. xviii. 435). It is there stated that 
no trace of a Roman road or station was known to be near to 
them. If there was a road following this course, as is not 
improbable, it was most likely of British origin. 

Mr Essex remarked that the road from Red Cross Farm 
was continued " to the north of Grantchester, near which it 
makes part of a ridgeway leading towards Hardwick, and is 
B. 4 



50 

called Dead man's Way. John Leat, a labourer, being em- 
ployed 17 years ago [that is before 1773, or in 1756] in digging 
a trench in a field laying on the south side of this way, having 
dug about three feet below the surface, found a paved way, 
about 1 ft. 6 in. thick, composed of pebbles laid in gravel, on 
the side of which was some brickwork ; the bricks, according to 
his description, were about the thickness of a common brick, 
but much longer and wider" (Essex's MS. note book. Brit. 
Mas. Add. MS8. 6708, p. 213). My own observation leads me 
to believe that there was such a track, and it is difficult to see 
by whom it could have been made since the time of the 
Romans. 

3. Other supposed Roads from Cambridge. Having 
concluded the account of the two great lines of communication 
passing through Cambridge, I might proceed to describe 
the others which are intended to be described in this treatise ; 
but it is desirable first to mention two lines which have 
been supposed to have started from that town. (a) Lord 
Braybrooke thought that the roads leading from the important 
station at Chesterford to Cambridge, although not very evident, 
may be made out, but not with absolute certainty. The prin- 
cipal one probably followed the modern way to Ickleton and 
Duxford (where there is a very Roman-looking branch west- 
ward to Triplow), and proceeded behind Whittlesford towards 
Cambridge. Another, starting from the north side (joined at 
Stump-cross by a short track from. Ickleton, a continuation 
apparently of the Ashwell Street), ran by Bournbridge to the 
Fleam Dyke. The remainder of the remarks upon the roads 
near Chesterford refer to those in Essex (see Archceol. Journal 
xi. 209). 

(b) But those about which there is greater probability are 
(1) Cambridge to Chesterford. Dr Bennet states his belief 
that there was a road from Cambridge to Chesterford, pro- 
ceeding nearly on the line of the present road by Great 



51 

Shelford and Sawston ; but no trace of it has been observed. 
At Shelford, and therefore close by the side of this supposed 
road, there is a fine lectangular camp at a spot now called 
Granham's Farm. It is 400 yards long from east to west, 
and rather more than 160 from north to south. The bank 
is very lofty and perfect throughout its eastern half, but 
has been levelled in the other part, owing to the house and 
farm premises being within the camp. The ditch, of great 
breadth, may be traced throughout a much greater portion of 
its extent, and is wet, part being now choked with bog and 
part full of water. Unfortunately the tenant has removed 
much of these fine works recently. 

On the top of Huckeridge Hill, near Sawston, some men 
removing gravel in Aug. 1816, found a skeleton at 3 feet 
below the surface. At the feet of the skeleton there were 
placed two vessels of bronze, the larger 15 inches across, and 
having a flat rim ornamented with a row of bosses all round. 
They found also some black coarse earthenware ; an iron sword 
2 ft. 7 J in. long ; the iron umbo of a shield ; and a bronze 
fibula formed like a double-headed snake. The remains were 
purchased by Dr E. D. Clarke for the University [Archceol. xviii. 
340, t. 24 and 25). It is probable that they are Saxon or 
Danish remains, but I can learn nothing concerning them. 

(2) Cambridge to Braughing. Dr Stukeley mentions a 
road leading from Cambridge to Braughing, where it fell into 
the JErming Street. He says that he " could discern many 
traces of it in the present road, as particularly beyond Barley," 
and he observed " several milestones, particularly a little on 
this side Hare Street." Dr Bennet takes no notice of this line, 
although he quotes Stukeley's Medallic History of Carausitis, 
from which (ii. 144) the above extract is taken. I think that 
the real road commenced at Chesterford passing by Strethall, 
Littlebury Green, also called Stretley, Leebury, Pond Street, 
and then through a country with which I am totally un- 

4—2 



52 

acquainted, led to Hare Street and Braughing. Still it must be 
remembered that extensive traces of ancient occupation were 
found in 1871, in a field between Hauxton Mill and the road 
to Hauxton. Only a few decidedly Roman tiles with flanges 
were found, and two slabs of freestone which seem to have 
formed part of a floor. It is quite impossible to say what 
Stukeley's "milestones" may have been. No traces of them 
now exist. 



III. OTHER ANCIENT ROADS IN CAMBRIDGE- 
SHIRE. 

Before commencing the description of the Erming and 
Icknield Ways I would refer to the. admirable paper by the 
lamented Dr Guest, On the Four Roman Ways (Archozol. 
Journ. xiv. 99), w T here the whole subject is exhaustively dis- 
cussed, and our roads shown to be the true Erming and Icknield 
Ways or Streets. 

4. The Erming Street. Dr Guest justly remarks that 
the southern part of this road was probably of British formation ; 
for neither are there many Roman remains on its course, nor is 
it noticed in the <: Iters " of Antoninus. It is therefore ex- 
ceedingly improbable that a paved road existed leading directly 
from Loudon to Lincoln. Other routes are pointed out by 
Antoninus. But we have only to consider its course through 
Cambridgeshire, where it is now exactly followed by a turnpike 
road. Starting from London and passing Cheshunt and Ware it 
reached -Braughing; then proceeded by Buntingford and Royston, 
following the line of the present road, to Godmanchester (Du- 
rolipons). At Braughing it threw off, as I suppose, the road 
already mentioned to Chesterford. At Royston it crossed the 
Icknield Way, and at two miles further north the Ashwell 
Street. At Arrington Bridge, named from the village called 



53 

Ermingtune in the Domesday Survey, the Akeman Street was 
crossed by it. At about three miles from Godmanchester it 
passes a spot called Latenbury. It went through the middle of 
the station Durolipons, as the Via Devana appears to have 
passed on the outside of it on the north-east, and the Roman 
road from Sandy similarly on the west 1 : the three combining to 
cross the river Ouse together. From Godmanchester its course 
was by Alconbury Hill, Sawtry, and Stilton (a little to the 
west of which place there is a Caldecot at about midway be- 
tween the Erming Street and the Bullock Road) to Chesterton 
on the Nen, and Castor, the site of the Dueobriv^E of An- 
toninus, to Lincoln. Between Alconbury Hill and Sawtry this 
is now called Stangate. Gale supposed that it crossed the 
Ouse at Offord (or Oldford) a little above Huntingdon, near a 
spot called Port Mead ; but that does not seem to have been 
the case with the Eoman road, although the original British 
Erming Way may have passed there, having come from Sandy 
by Eynesbury; I am, however, more inclined to think that 
it passed the river at or very near to Eynesbury ; but of this 
mention will be made under the head of Bullock Road. Horsley, 
who will not allow that there was any station at Huntingdon 
or Godmanchester, adopts Gale's idea, and says of this line 
coming from the north, that " where it is last visible on the 
south side of the river [Nen], it falls obliquely on to the 
present post-road, and so has probably crossed it near Chester- 
ton " (Horsley, Brit. Rom. 431). He is apparently in error 
when, speaking of the oblique direction of its junction with 
the post-road, he states that that shows it to have crossed that 
road. We may trust to the Ordnance Map, as I find from per- 
sonal examination. The road is quite straight for about ten 

1 Durolipons appears to have been hexagonal and placed in the angle 
formed by those two roads, but traversed by the greater and probably 
more ancient way now called the Erming Street. The outline of the 
station may probably be traced in the lanes surrounding the modern town. 



54 

miles, or for five on each side of Durobriv^e, the station close 
to Chesterton; and it is the turnpike-road that joins it at an 
acute angle, and changes its original direction for that of the 
Roman line. I saw the foundation of the Roman road at about 
half-a-mile to the north of the Nene formed of large slabs of 
stone set on mortar made with pounded tile. It is probable 
that the British (or other early) way coming from Lincoln, and 
now called King Street, after passing through Castor, crossed 
the river with the Ernving Street, and accompanied it through 
DuROBRiViE, but then, turning to the right parted from it and 
passing along the "convenient ridge of high ground " mentioned 
by Horsley, became what is now called the Bulloch Road, of 
which a description is given in a future page. 

Gibson {Anton. 142) considers that Durobriv^ was a 
name applied to the camps placed on both sides of the river 
Nen at Castor, Alwalton, Chesterton, and Water Newton, at 
all of which places he states that remains of them have been 
found. He states that the name means " camps by the river," 
or the " water-cities." In the Itinerary of Richard of Ciren- 
cester (a work deserving of little confidence owing to its more 
than doubtful authenticity) we find DuRNOMAGUS in the place 
that is occupied by DuROBRlVvE in Antoninus; and it is sup- 
posed that the former was that part of the town which was 
situated on the northern side of the river at and about Castor, 
and the latter the part lying to the south of the river between 
Chesterton and Water Newton. But his guesses are of ex- 
ceedingly little value. Gibson's work above quoted contains an 
account of DuROBRiviE as it was then (1769) known, and 
Mr Artis has more recently made very extensive excavations at 
Castor, and published a series of plates illustrative of his dis- 
coveries. A list of Roman coins found at Castor is given in the 
Journal of the Archaeological Association (ii. 265). A short state- 
ment of some of Mr Artis's discoveries will also be found in that 
Journal (i. 1) ; and in the Gentleman s Magazine (xci. Pt. 1. 483), 



55 

where it is stated, that the antiquities were distributed over a 
spot of a triangular shape, of which two of the sides are 2 miles, 
and the other side 1 J mile in length, the churchyard of Castor 
being at the apex. Supposing the triangle to stand north and 
south, as is most probable, this space would include nearly, if 
not quite, all the places mentioned by Gibson. 

5. The Icknield Way. Dr Guest points out that this 
was called "Ichenilde" or "Icenhilde Weg" in Anglo-Saxon 
charters. Higden, mistaking the Rykenield Way for it, caused 
the transfer of the name from our county to Staffordshire ; for 
his book was so popular that he has been followed in this mis- 
take, as well as in other respects. Accordingly Icknield is now 
applied to many spots near to the Rykenield Way. The simi- 
larity of the names misled him. 

In' our district the true Icknield Way may easily be traced 
from near Thetford to Icklingham, where there are Roman 
remains, and where Horsley placed the ancient Camboeitum, 
then crossing the river Lart at Lackford, and falling into the 
line of the present road at Kentford. It forms from thence 
the boundary of the counties of Suffolk and Cambridge as far 
as a point upon Newmarket Heath, about a mile to the north- 
east of the BeviVs Ditch. That it passed close by Newmarket 
is shown by a deed printed by the Archaeological Institute 
{Norwich Volume, 22) relating to the transfer of "totum so- 
larium meum lapideum quod se extendit super Ykenildeweie " 
by "Robertus filius Radulfi Brother de Novo Mercato." The 
terms of the deed refer specially to the gate of the grantor's 
house. The place was therefore at Newmarket. The date of 
the deed is apparently in the reign of Hen. III. At a little 
distance to the east of Newmarket it passes a tumulus called 
Bury Hill. We are told by Dr Bennet — for I believe that its 
exact course is at present unknown — that " keeping to the 
hilly ground to the east of the present road it bears directly 
for Ickleton, without bending out its course or inclining towards 



5G 

the considerable Roman station at Chesterford, not far from 
which it passes. It is remarked by Stukeley and Mason that, in 
its crossing one of the ancient ditches," the Brent or Pampisford 
Ditch (Gough's Camden, 141), "so common in this part of the 
country, the fosse has been evidently filled up to admit the road." 
It appears almost certain from this remark, that those antiquaries, 
or Mason alone (for he is the person mentioned by Gough), 
traced some part of its course in our county. We are informed 
above that it kept to the east of the present road from New- 
market to Chesterford, and I had hoped that the boundaries 
of parishes might restore its probable line. These boundaries 
do not however much assist us. They are very irregular in the 
neighbourhood of the present road throughout the northern 
half of the debated district, except that they coincide with 
it between Bangalore Barn and the Green Man ; from the 
Balsham Dyke to the point where it becomes the boundary of 
the county they exactly follow its course. In all probability, 
then, this latter part of the modern road is on the line of the 
ancient one. When within less than a mile of Great Chester- 
ford it makes a turn nearly at right angles with its former 
course to pass Ickleton, the county boundary accompanying it 
round the curve. There is reason to believe that Ickleton was 
the site of a British town. Camden calls it " an ancient little 
city." It then probably went by Ickleton Grange to a point 
near Chrishall Grange, not far from a tumulus opened by the 
late Lord Braybrooke. From thence it may be traced as a 
nearly disused track to Known's Folly, near to which spot it 
becomes the boundary of the counties of Cambridge and Hert- 
ford. In this part it passes across the Heydon or Brand Ditch 
to be noticed further on. It may be followed b}^ Royston and 
Baldock, and so to Dunstable. Dr Bennet found it to be "very 
manifest on the hill-side south-west of Ickleton and on the 
Downs near Royston." There is no trace of it now in the 
former place, which is ploughed up, but it is used as a road 



57 

near the latter, where it crosses Burloes Hill, on which are or 
were many tumuli of the stone age. Near to this road in the 
year 1847 Lord Braybrooke found, at a place called Five 
Barrow Field (which is about one mile and a half from Royston, 
two from Melbourn, and three from Barkway), cinerary vessels 
of unbaked clay and a coin of the first brass of Marcus Aurelius; 
also a covered way extending from S.E. to N.W. At two 
miles distance, he informs us, that there is another similar way 
extending as far as the eye can reach to the westward (Archeeo- 
logia, xxxii. 357. Sepult. Explor. 25). 

To the west of Royston there was a Roman camp of which 
a plan was exhibited to the Society of Antiquaries in 1744, by 
Mr Nichols, but he does not appear to have deposited it with 
the Society, as no trace of it is now to be found [Camden, ii. 
65). In the same direction " several British hut-circles have 
been opened, containing ashes and fragments of bronze " (Arch. 
Journ. xxv. 27). Traces of very ancient cultivation may be seen 
on the turf, and many Roman coins have been found. 

6. Ashwkll Street. — This name is now employed to 
designate a straight piece of road extending from near Ash- 
well to the Erming Street near Kneesworth. It was supposed 
to be the Icknield Way by the late Rev. Dr Webb, Master of 
Clare College, and Rector of Litlington, and is called Roman by 
him. In the former idea I believe that he will be generally con- 
sidered to have then been in error, in the latter he is most proba- 
bly correct. This road seems to have commenced at Shefford, 
passed by Etonbury, Stotfold, and Newnham (a little to the 
south of Caldecot), by Harborough Banks, which is "a camp 
of 12 acres, where coins, &c. have been found " (Sharpe's Gaz. 
i. 78). Within a mile to the east of Ashwell it enters 
Cambridgeshire, and passing at about a mile to the south of 
Litlington church, and crossing the Erming Street, was con- 
tinued to Melbourn Bury. From that place it seems to have 
passed between the southern point of the deep morass called 



58 

Melbourn Common, and the northern end of the Bran (or as 
I call it for distinction sake, the Hey don) Ditch, to Foulmire and 
Triplow, a little to the south of Whittlesford, where it crossed 
the southern branch of the river Cam, through Pampisford, and 
by the northern end of the Brent Ditch to join the Ichiield Way 
and Peddar Way at Bourn Bridge. 

Between Caldecot and Henxwell were found, in 1720, many- 
urns, with bones and ashes, several skeletons lying to the south- 
east, some paterae with names, lachrymatories, fibulae, beads, &c; 
also in 1724, three patera?, two patellae of red earth, an ampulla, 
a small urn of different colours, a glass lachrymatory, the handle 
and neck of a glass simpulum, stone [?] handle of a sword, brass 
fibnke, &c , were found in Henxwell parish. (Minutes of Soc. of 
Antiq. quoted in Gough's Camden, i. 342). 

Litlingtox. — An account of the Roman burial-place by the 
Ashwell Street, " the line of communication between the Roman 
station at Ashwell and that at Chesterford," is given in the 
Cambridge Chronicle (April 26, and May 17, 1821). The plan 
on the opposite page will show the position of this cemetery in 
the inclosure R. It is derived from a rough sketch made by the 
late Dr Webb. It is stated that eighty urns containing human 
bones, between twenty and thirty simpula, twenty paterae of the 
red Samian ware, twenty lachrymatories, and about thirty 
earthern vessels were found. Also two urns, of green glass, 
oue square with each side measuring 8 inches, and the height 
13 inches, the other smaller, with handles both massive 
and beautiful, very similar to those described in the Archodo- 
logia (Vol. x. and xiv.), as discovered at Lincoln and Haver- 
hill. Also two glass vessels with long necks and straight 
handles. The paterae of Samian ware have the potter's marks 
PATER. F., GRACISSA F., ELVILLL, DIVICATVS., &C. ; they are 
6 or 7 inches in diameter; some have a leaf on the 
edge but no potter's work. They frequently served as covers 
to the urns. An urn, a simpulum, and a patera were in 



59 



general found together ; the simpulum contiguous to the urn ; 
the patera, if not used as a cover, placed perpendicularly touch- 
ing the urn. Many tiles were found of about three-fourths of an 
inch in thickness, 17 inches in length, and 12 in breadth, 
and somewhat concave, and turned down at the edges about an 
inch. Coins were found of Constantine (silver), having on the 
reverse three stars over a globe placed upon an altar, with 




VOTIS over it and XX beneath, surrounded by the motto 
BE ATA TEANQUILITAS ; one of Antoninus Pius, and of Alexander 
Severus \ 

To these Dr Webb adds (Archceol. xxvi.) coins of Hadrian, 
Quintilius, Carausius, and Magnentius ; also a Roman style 

1 Some of the sepulchral vessels are figured in Smith's Collect. Antiqua, 
i. t. 12. 



60 



of brass, and a number of fibulas of brass. Several Saxon coins, 
being silver pennies of Burgred of Mercia and of Ethelred the 
Elder, have been found (Camb. Chron. May 17, 1821). Many 
of these antiquities are now preserved in the Museum of the 
Cambridge Antiquarian Society to which they were given by 
the late Rev. Dr Webb. 




7<n 



<?* 



£ 



v 



At a meeting of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society (May 
6, 184*1), the late Rev. W. Clack exhibited coloured drawings of 
a tesselated pavement found in a Roman villa at Litlington 
(Camb. Chron. May 8, 1841), and at another meeting (Dec. 6, 
1841) he gave an account of his whole proceedings in the 



61 



exploration of the villa, which consisted of more than thirty 
rooms and a bath (Camb. Chron. Dec. 11, 1841). It was 
situated between the Ashwell Street and Litlington church, 
and the examination of it was chiefly made in the year 1829 
(Camb. Chron. May 29, 1829). Unfortunately Mr Clack's col- 
lections were sold in Devonshire, and cannot now be traced, 
except a very few of the Roman vessels which are in the pos- 
session of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society. His manu- 
script and plans also never came into the hands of the Society 
and cannot now be found. 

A terra-cotta vase nearly five inches high, and ten inches 
in circumference, was found at Guilden Morden in 1879, and 
is now in the possession of the Rev. S. S. Lewis, of Corpus 
Christi College. Its ornamentation consists of wreaths of olive 
and laurel inclosing the inscription vteee FELIX painted 
around in white characters seven-eighths of an inch high. It is 
represented two-thirds of the true size on the opposite page. 
It may be noted that the same legend is found on a pewter lanx 
discovered at Welney in Norfolk, in 1864, and described in the 
Archceol. Journ. (xxvii. 98), and figured in Fen Land (p. 474). 
From the form of the letters on the vase and the discovery of 
coins of the early Caesars near Guilden Morden we learn that the 




Coin found at Litlington. 

Obv. NERO'CLAVD(ius).CAESAR.AVG(ustus) GER(manicus) p(ontifex) M(aximus) 
TK(ibunitia) p(otestate) iMP(erator). 

Rev. s(enatus) c(onsulto). Victory rising in the air, and holding a shield 
on which is inscribed spqr. 



62 

Romans occupied that district at an early period. The dis- 
covery of a second brass coin of Nero (see p. 61) in a garden at 
Litlington enables vis to approximate to a superior limit of date 
for the Roman occupation of this neighbourhood. 

The discovery at Litlington, in January, 1881, of a Roman 
mosaic pavement and hypocaust, in a garden next to the site of 
Dr Webb's excavations, has been announced; but it was of the 
ordinary kind, made of plain white cubes of stone, and has 
since been destroyed. 

At Limlow or Limbury Hill (marked as " Tumulus " only on 
the Ordnance Map), which is about half-a-mile to the south of 
the above burial-place, skeletons, with coins of Claudius, Ves- 
pasian, and Faustina were found in 1833, as we learn from the 
communications made by the Rev. Dr Webb, to the Society of 
Antiquaries, and published in the Arclueologia (xxvi. 368, t. 44 
and 45, also p. 374). 

The Society of Antiquaries has a large olla of Anglo-Roman 
ware, much broken, found in 1843 at Melbourn, and presented 
to the Society by Mr Alex. Watford of Cambridge. It is 12£ 
inches high, and 7h inches wide at the mouth (Way's Cat. of 
Antiq. &c. 17). 

Mr Beldam mentions (Archceol. Jonrn. xxv. 30) an import- 
ant Roman camp at Melbourn which I have not seen. He says : 
" it formed a quadrangle of about 200 yards, surrounded by 
a vallum with a second vallum towards the east. It occupied 
a flat of dry ground defended towards the north-east and east 
by the morass. Under its western side passed the ancient 
road to Cambridge, still known in this part by the name of the 
Portway, and a similar space of about 200 yards of high ground 
divided it from the Meldreth morass still further to the west." 
There is no trace of this work on the Ordnance Map. Various 
antiquities have been found near to it and about Melbourn, viz. 
" funereal urns now in the British Museum," Samian ware and 
coins. 



63 

The Chronicle Hills, three tumuli, which stood in a line 
bearing north and south upon the eastern side of a brook which 
divides the parishes of Triplow and Whittlesford, and a short 
distance to the north of the supposed continuation of the Ash* 
well Street, were levelled in 1819. They contained the remains 
of skeletons. Adjoining them an ancient well or Roman rubbish 
pit was found filled with broken pieces of pottery with red and 
black glazing, and a number of tiles formed to overlap each 
other. Remains of interments were also found in other tumuli 
near the Chronicle Hills, and the remnants of a bronze vessel. 
One of the skeletons was in a sitting posture. In both of 
these cases bones of animals were observed, and especially an 
enormous quantity of very small bones, but the animal to which 
they belonged was not determined (Gent. Mag. lxxxix. 1, t. 27; 
Camb.Chron. Nov. 13, 1819). 

Near Foxton, which lies to the north of Foulmire, an Am- 
phora, a much-broken vase of Arretine ware, and other articles 
of Roman pottery, were found in 1852 {Camb. Antiq. Soc. Comm. 
i. 43), also a Roman key of bronze. 

A representation of the vase more perfectly restored than as 
figured in the Communications is on p. 64. It is represented as 
of ^rd the real size, but the potter's marks from its side and foot 
are of the size of the original. 

At Hinxton and Whittlesford coins of the early emperors 
have been found, and at the latter place a cinerary urn of a 
peculiarly elegant shape. 

Mr Woodward supposed that the Ichnield Way starting from 
Norwich passed by Buckenham to Ixworth, and from thence to 
Bury St Edmund's. In my opinion, and in that of the Ord- 
nance Surveyors, it may still be traced from near Thetford to 
Kentford. Mr Woodward lays down a British way on the line 
which I believe to have been taken by the Ichnield Way, viz., 
from Norwich 'by Wymondham and Attleborough to Thetford 
(Archceol. xxiii. 368). 



64 



It is not proposed to treat here of the alternative tracks on 
the Essex side of this way. They are very fully detailed by 
Mr Beldam in his valuable paper (Archceol. Journ. xxv.) but are 
out of our county. 








7. Peddar Way. — The Rev. C. H. Hartshorne (Salop ia 
Antiqua, 274) has employed this term to designate an ancient, 
probably Roman, road, which, having no recognized name 
throughout the greater part of its course, bears this appellation 
in the part which lies between Castle Acre and the sea. It 
began at,Stratford-le-Bow near London, and passing Wood- 
ford, Epping, Harlow, Bishop's Stortford, and Newport, reached 



65 

Great Chesterford, at about a mile beyond which it joined the 
Icknield Way, and they proceeded together at least as far as 
Worsted Lodge on the Via Devana, and perhaps to Mutlow 
Hill Gap in the Balsham Dyke. It is probable that they 
separated at the former place, and that the Peddar Way went 
by Shardlow's Well at the northern end of the stronger part 
of the Balsham Dyke, and then along a series of lanes com- 
mencing a little to the south of Great Wilbraham, and ex- 
tending to the Beacon tumuli at Upper Hare Park on the 
ascent of Newmarket Heath. These lanes are now called the 
Street Way, and it is by the side of them that Lord Braybrooke 
excavated an extensive Anglo-Saxon burial-place, and found 
many valuable antiquities 1 . It seems then to have passed 
through what is now called the Running Gap in the Devil's 
Ditch, by the end of the marshy ground at St Mindred's Well, 
otherwise called Favin's Head, to Exning, where many Saxon 
and Roman (Camb. Antiq. Soc. Rep. vi. 10, and Museum) remains 
have been found. From Exning its line lay apparently ■ by 
Chippenham and Badlingham to Mildenhall (where Roman 
remains have been found, as I learnt from Mr Arthur Taylor), 
or Barton Mills, by Mareway or Portway Hill (by both of which 
names the place is known) to Brandon, and so by Mundford, 
Ickborough, and Hilborough, to Swaffham and Castle Acre, 
terminating at Bran caster. According to this view of the 
course of the Peddar Way, it would appear to have supplied 
for the Romans the place of the older British Icknield Way 
throughout that part of its course which lies to the east of 
Chesterford. The Ashwell Street probably did the same for many 
miles to the west of that place. The late Mr Woodward sup- 
posed that the Peddar Way reached Castle Acre from quite a 
different district. He brings it in a direct line from Ixworth in 

1 See "Saxon Obsequies illustrated by ornaments and weapons dis- 
covered by the Hon. R. C. Neville in a cemetery near Little Wilbraham, 
1852." 

B. 5 



66 

Suffolk by Brettenham, leaving Swaffham a little to the west 
(Archceol. xxiii. 370, t. 31). It is stated by him that the road is 
tolerably distinct from Brettenham to the west side of Merton 
Hall near Watton. 

Mr R. Gale states {Bel. Gal. in Bill. Topog. Brit. iii. 117), 
that at a place called hy the country people Starbury Hill, just 
above the London road near Audley End, there are the visible re- 
mains of a square work, where the author of Sir Thos. Smith's 
life 'p. 130) tells us Roman money has been found, particularly 
a golden coin of Claudius ; which is also confirmed by Hollin- 
shed (p. 218), who mentions likewise the finding of a large 
antique silver cup there. This camp is stated to be square, but 
is probably what is now called Ring Hill, although certainly 
that intrenchment is not square. 

The late Lord Braybrooke examined the Roman station at 
Chesterford with great care, and collected a very extensive 
Museum of the remains disinterred there under his directions, 
which is preserved at Audley End. He considers Chesterford 
to have been the Iceanum of the Romans. He has given an 
account of these antiquities in two privately printed volumes 
entitled, Antiqua explorata, and Sepulta explorata, and also a 
sketch of his proceedings in the Journal of the Archceological 
Association (iii. 208 and 344). 

Prof. T. M C K. Hughes has given in the fortieth Annual 
Beport of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society an interesting 
preliminary report concerning a kiln discovered at Great 
Chesterford just on the borders of our county, in 1880. It is 
so interesting that a notice of it is given here notwithstanding 
its position just outside our bounds. " It consists of a circu- 
lar chamber the top of which is about 12 feet in diameter 
and was sunk 18 feet into the ground, tapering to a flat- 
bottomed basin. It was surrounded by a wall of large round 
or subangular stones... set with a calcareous mud, and the 
inside plastered with the same. The walls were 1 foot 8 inches 



67 

thick. At 4 feet 7 inches from the bottom there was a ledge 
a little over a foot across. The chamber was entered on the 
north side at the level of the ledge by a pathway which 
sloped gently from the surface of the ground. A few Roman 
bricks had been used in forming the doorway. There was a 
window-like opening about 2 feet in its longest diameter, 
probably for draught, about 9 feet from the bottom of the 
opposite side. The top of this ' kiln ' had been broken away 
at an early period. From its contents it was clear that it 
had been used as a refuse pit " (See p. 31). The date of this 
pit is shown by the Roman bricks used in its wall and the dis- 
covery of coins of Magnentius (a.d. 350 — 353),Valentinianus (a.d. 
364 — 375), and Victorianus amongst the rubbish contained in it. 
It also contained the bones of Bos primigenius, horse, sheep, 
red-deer, pig, dog, cat (whether wild or domestic was not deter- 
mined), and the common fowl. There was a great variety of broken 
Roman pottery, a few bronze articles, and other remains in it. 

Lord Braybrooke made excavations at Mutlow Hill, a large 
tumulus close adjoining the Balsham Dyke. He found Roman 
remains consisting of bronze fibula?, armillge, &c„ and 7.9 coins, 
including those of Antoninus Pius (silver) ; Domitian, Trajan, 
Hadrian, Aurelius, Commodus, and Caracalla, of first brass ; 
Vespasian, Titus, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Lucius Verus, of 
second brass ; Constantine, Licinius, Gratian, Victorinus, Pos- 
tumus, Allectus, Claudius Gothicus, Tetricus, Valentinianus, of 
third brass. These were found in the examination of the 
foundations, composed of large bricks shaped from chalk, of a 
circular building, measuring 35 feet across, and with 3 feet 
thickness of wall (Archmol. Journ. ix. 229). 

Two of the barrows on the edge of Newmarket Heath, 
belonging to the group called the Beacons, were examined in 
May 1846 by a party from Cambridge. In one of them nothing 
was found as it appeared to have been previously opened ; in 
the other the remains of a British interment, consisting of a 

5—2 



OS 

rude vase (now in the Cambridge Antiquarian Museum), a few 
bones, and some ashes, were discovered (Camb. Citron. May 23, 
1846). 

In removing a barrow for the purpose of improving the 
exercise ground on Newmarket Heath, an urn of rude con- 
struction and materials, containing ashes and some bones, was 
found in its centre ; also two coins, supposed to be Roman, and 
a fragment of a cup of far superior manufacture to the urn 
above mentioned, were found lying amongst the soil at the 
depth of about two feet (Camb. Citron. Jan. 26, 1827)- 

Several Roman antiquities have been found at Exning, of 
which two urns are in the Cambridge Antiquarian Museum ; 
and many coins of the later Roman Emperors have occurred 
there, but they are mostly illegible. 

There appears to have been a road leaving the Peddar Way 
at Bishop's Stortford, crossing the Erming Street at Braughing, 
and continued to Baldock ; passing by a track already noticed 
to Shefford, and perhaps carried on by Bedford, Higham Ferrars, 
Kettering, and Market Harborough to Leicester. This cross 
track probably started from Colchester, passing Braintree and 
Dunmow on its way to Bishop's Stortford. 

8. The Fen Road. — This road appears to have started 
from the coast of Norfolk at Happisburgh, passed by Walsham, 
Reepham, and Swaffham, where it crossed the Peddar Way 
to Denver near Downham Market, where it also crossed the 
Akeman Street, and proceeded in a pretty direct line to the 
hiorh land at Norwood Common at about a mile to the north 
of March, near to which (on the road to Wisbech, and there- 
fore probably not far from the line of the Roman Way) three 
urns full of burned bones, and a pot containing 160 denarii 
of nearly all the Emperors from Vespasian to Antoninus Pius 
inclusive, were found in 1730 (Gough's Camden, 141) ; an 
aureus of Valentinianus was found there in 1845. Mr W. 
Marshall of Ely informs me that near Eastrey this road stands 



69 

1 — 2 feet above the present surface of the land, and is nearly 
60 feet wide, and as hard as stone. The road then went by 
Eldernell to Whittlesey, and the neighbourhood of Standground. 
It perhaps crossed the river at Peterborough, from whence 
Dr Bennet states that it had, in his time, been recently traced 
to the Roman station near Castor, and Mr Gibson says posi- 
tively that that was its course ; passing from Peterborough in 
a straight line through Milton Park, and the then open field 
to Love Hill, and so on to the centre of the camps at Castor 
(Antoninus, iii.) ; or it may have gone direct to Chesterton, 
and joined the Erming Street before crossing the river. Sir 
W. Dugdale, in his History of Embanking (p. 175), speaks of 
this road as follows : " Neither is the long causeway made of 
gravel of about 3 feet' in thickness and 60 feet broad (now 
[1662] covered with moor, in some places 3, and in some others 
5 feet thick), which extendeth itself from Downham in Norfolk 
(near Salter's Lode) over the great wash to Charke ; thence to 
March, Plantwater, and Eldernell, and so to Peterborough, in 
length about 24 miles, likely to be o,ther than Roman work, as 
may be seen from the words of Herodian (Lib. 3) in the life 
of Severus the Emperor, where taking notice how hardy and 
warlike a people the Britons were, and of their expertness in 
swimming, he saith : ' Sed imprimis tamen curse habuit ponti- 

bus occupare paludes, ut stare in tuto milites siquidem 

pleraque loca frequentibus oceani alluvionibus paludescunt ; 
per eas igitur paludes barbari ipsi natant.' " In another place 
he remarks : " Mr Jonas Moore (the chief surveyor of this great 
work of draining in Cambridgeshire and the counties adjacent) 
tells me that the causeway I formerly mentioned is 60 feet 
broad in all places where they have cut through it, and about 
18 inches thickness of gravel lying upon moor, and now in 
maDy places 3 feet deep under a new accession of moor" 
(Sir W. Dugdale to Sir T. Brown 1658, in Brown's Posth. 
Works, p. 4). Stukeley says that it was often discovered when 



70 

digging the drains. I know nothing personally of much of this 
line. The difficulty of tracing an ancient road through such a 
country is of course peculiarly great ; as however the Ordnance 
Surveyors mark a line throughout the whole of the above course 
from Denver Sluice to Whittlesey it is nearly certain that they 
saw traces of it. On the line of this road we find that there 
are eleven miles of fen between Denver and March, and four 
between the latter place and Eldernell, and 1|- mile from 
Whittlesey to Horsey Hill, where the road crossed the Old Nen 
river. Mr Little (Journ. Archceol. Assoc, xxxv. 267) has given 
a detailed account of it, especially of that part between March 
and Eldernell. He says " it is a causeway raised about 3 feet 
above the fen, and challenges the notice of the most careless 

passer by On the high lands by March it can hardly be 

seen but that it was visible a few years ago there can be 

no doubt. After leaving the high lands of March the road 
makes an abrupt turn to the north-west as if to keep to the 
high land as long as possible. After running in that direction 
for about a thousand yards it resumes its former direction to 
the west and crosses the fen in a fairly straight line for about 
four miles to Eldernell." 

Wells traces on the map, appended to his work entitled The 
Bedford Level, what is manifestly the course of this road, which 
he there calls Ireton's Way, but does not give that name to it 
in his text, where he informs us that "at various places the 
remains of this stupendous undertaking may be easily traced" 
(Bedford Level, i. 60). 

In May, 1853, I saw traces of the eastern part of it, in the 
form of a ridge crossing a ploughed field, between a lane which 
is the boundary of the parish of Denver at Nordelph and a wind- 
mill, following the line faintly traced on the Ordnance Map. 
Along that narrow line only there was plenty of flint gravel, which 
must have been brought from a considerable distance. A middle- 
aged labourer directed us to the spot, and stated that his grand- 



71 

father had told him that a gravel road had been found there 
when some of the drains were cut. I also saw what seemed to 
be its remains, extending from a spot called Stone Cross a 
little to the north-east of Denver, along a lane and across a 
grass field, and pointing towards Bexwell and Crimplesham. 
It seems probable that the Akeman Way and Fen Road 
crossed each other at the spot now called Stone Cross. On 
another occasion I saw the road commencing at about 1| mile 
to the west of the former place, and followed its course over the 
lands by London Lode (marked as Neatmore, Lot xi. on Well's 
Map of the Bedford Level) as far as Fortrey's Drain. On the 
ploughed land it was shown by the yellow colour of the corn, 
and in a grass-field by a well-defined ridge about 52 feet wide 
with a depression upon each side. An old man working at one 
of the drains stated that he remembered having heard of an 
old gravel road on the line of the Fen Way, and that it was not 
the old road which ran by the side of London Lode. In a 
newspaper paragraph, signed J. A. C. in June, 1850, it is stated 
that the chief Roman road in the Fens " is that stretching over 
Bedford Level, between Denver and Peterborough, 24 miles in 
length, and about 63 feet broad and 3 feet thick. It con- 
sists of a layer of oak trees immediately on the moor (which is 
much compressed by the weight), above them a paving of Nor- 
thamptonshire flag-stone, and upon that alternate coatings of 
gravel and clay cemented into a hard mass." Mr W. Marshall, 
of Ely, believes from " careful personal examination" that this 
road has never been covered by the peat. He says " I found 
unmistakeable proofs that that causeway had been carried over 
the peat, and constructed upon boughs and branches of trees ; 
and that there is a considerable thickness of peat under it." 
But he adds " I am acquainted with one gentleman who knows 
the locality well, who thinks that Dugdale's statement may be 
reconciled with the present aspect of the causeway" (Camb. 
Antiq. Comm. iv. 205). 



72 

In the cour.se of the formation of the railway, three Roman 
vases were found in a bed of gravel 3 feet below the 
surface at Norwood Side by March, which are now in the 
Wisbech Museum. "In 1730, when the road was making 
from Wisbech to March [between March common and Guy- 
hirne], two urns were found, in one of which were bones and 
ashes, and in the other about 300 pieces of silver coin, of all 
the Roman Emperors from Vespasian to Constantine, both in- 
clusive, no two pieces alike (Reliq. Gal. in Bibl. Topog. Brit. iii. 
163 and 465, where they are described). Also a few years since 
[before 1827] some coins of Hadrian were found in a field of 
Mr Richards' ; and more recently, in digging a hole for a gate- 
post, nearly half a peck of base silver, of about the time of 
Gallienus, was found at Stoney, near March " (Watson's Wis- 
bech, 588). Also, a large quantity of Roman potter} 7 , including 
Samian ware and sepulchral urns, was presented to the Wisbech 
Museum, in Jan. 1848, by Mr W. E. Rose, which had been 
found at Stoney in the course of the formation of the railway 
at that place {Camb. Chron. Jan. 8, 1848). In one of them an 
aureus of Antoninus was found (Arch. Journ. xix. 365). 

Mr I. Deck possessed a necklace of 39 rough amber, and 3 
blue glass beads, and also a bronze spear head and various 
other " Roman " implements. They were found in company 
with a skeleton in Maney Fen, and were British rather than 
Roman (Camb. Chron. May 2, 1840). Maney is at some dis- 
tance from any of the old roads, and in the heart of 
the fens. 

At Thorney, which is a few miles to the north of Whittlesey, 
many very well preserved urns and coins have been dug up 
near to the church. There were several coins of Trajan 
(Watson's Wisbech, 560). 

About the year 1742, several Roman lamps were found by 
a man who was ploughing at Glassmore (a little to the S.E. of 
Angle Bridge on the W T hittlesey Dyke) ; they were made of red 



73 

ware, and all found lying very regularly in a row (Watson's 
Wisbech, 569. Minutes of Spald. Soc. in Gough's Camden, ii. 
140*). 

Mr Woodward supposed that this road reached Denver by 
a direct route from Norwich, passing by Ovington and Oxburgh. 
He mentions that traces of a road have been noticed at He- 
therset, on a farm called Plainard's — also in the parish of 
Saham, where three Roman pigs of lead were found, — likewise 
that there is a Roman encampment at Ovington, — and that 
Roman coins have been found at Oxburgh (Archceol. xxxiii. 368). 
This is an extremely likely course for a road to have taken ; 
but, even allowing its existence, it does not destroy the high 
probability of the line by S waff ham. There appear to be 
traces of an ancient road, passing by Stradset to Swaffham, and 
also, I think, to the east of that place on the way to Hap- 
pisburgh, and perhaps Norwich. 

9. Ely to Spalding. — Dr Stukeley believed that a road 
branched from the Akeman Street at Littleport (at least so I 
understand his remarks), and went by the way of Welney, pro- 
bably along the line of the Old Causeway Dyke to Upwell and 
Elm ; and from thence in a direct line to Spalding. It seems 
to have kept on the western side of the Ouse (which then ran 
in the course of what is now called the Welney River) to 
Welney, at which place many Roman coins have been found 
(Gough's Camden, 141*), of which Watson (Wisbech, 553) tells 
us that they were obtained in 1718 (Cole's MS.), and that 
plates of them were engraved and presented to Trinity College 
Library by Beaupre Bell. At Welney it probably crossed the 
river and took a direct course along the Old Causeway Dyke 1 
to Upwell, near to which place, in 1844, "some labourers 
digging upon an old Roman road, in the occupation of G. Wooll, 
Esq.... found two vases filled with coins of various sizes in an 

1 See map in Armstrong's King's Lynn. 



74 

excellent state of preservation" {Gent. Mag. N. S. ix. 302). 
The road appears to have again crossed the river immediately 
after passing Welney. 

"About the year 1713, an urn full of small Roman brass 
coins, most of them of Victorinus and Tetricus, was found 
not far from a tumulus at Elm ; and a Roman altar, 26 
inches high and 14 broad (Coles MSS.), is stated to have been 
found at the same place. Also coins of Roman emperors from 
Gallienus down to Gratian were found in this parish, and de- 
posited with Beaupre Bell, Esq., who has given an account 
thereof" (Bib. Top. iii. p. 1G9). 

Concerning the further course of the road it may be well 
to quote the remarks of Stukeley as follows: "I suppose this 
road passed the Wisbech river above the town towards Guy- 
liurn Chapel [probably at or near to Cold Harbour], then went 
to Trokenholt and Clow's Cross,... from thence in a straight 
line to Spalding ; by this means most of the square forts in 
[the Wapentake of] Elloe, where Roman antiquities were dis- 
covered, together with most of the southern hamlets, will be 
found to be situated near or upon it." Concerning the places 
thus noticed he states as follows: "At Gedney Hill several 
Roman coins have been found, some of Antoninus. In the 
same hamlet, about two miles north of Southsea bank, is a 
pasture called the High Doles, being a square doubly moated, 
where ancient foundations have been dug up and some Roman 
coins. Another like square so moated is in the parish of 
[Sutton] St Edmunds, about the same distance from the said 
bank where the like matters have been discovered. Aswich 
Grange [doubtless Aswichtoft] in Whaplode Drove parish 
[where Roman coins are still found (Rep. &c. of Assoc. Archit. 
Soc. i. 341)] is a high piece of ground square and moated 
about : in this and near it many Roman coins have been dug 
up, and urns, which I have seen. In the parish of Fleet near 
Ravensclough, about 1698, upon a piece of high ground where 



buildings had been, Mr Edw. Lenton dug up a large urn with 
letters round it, full of Roman coins, about the quantity of 
three pecks,... they were of brass piled edgeways, mostly of 
the time of Gallienus and the thirty tyrants so called, Tetricus, 
Claudius Gothicus, Victorinus, Carausius, Allectus, &c." (Stuk. 
Itin. Cur. i. 11 and 13). 

A road supposed to have crossed this at Elm and led to 
Wisbech, &c, will be described presently. 

10. Suffolk and Sawtry Way. — Several portions of this 
road are still in use, and are called the Suffolk Way to the 
south of the fens, and Sawtry Way to the north of them. It 
came from London to Dunmow (C^ESAROMAGUS ?) by Wixoe, 
where it crossed the Via Deva,na, to Straddishall, by a very 
direct course, but perhaps threw off a loop route near Stam- 
bourne, by Ridgewell and Clare to Straddishall. It then seems 
to have changed its direction from north-east to a little to the 
west of north ; passing by Lidgate, where Roman bricks and 
a coin of Alexander Severus have been found. At a little 
beyond which place it forms the boundary of the counties of 
Suffolk and Cambridge, and bears the name of Suffolk Way ; 
then goes by Ouseden, from whence coins of Lucilia and Salo- 
nina have been obtained by the Cambridge Antiquarian Society. 
Passing to the east of Newmarket it seems to have gone through 
Chippenham Park to Fordham, along Brook Street to Soham, 
where on a piece of ground resembling an island in the fen seven 
or eight urns were found (Sir W. Dugdale in a letter to Sir T. 
Brown, 1658, in Brown's Posth. Works, 4), and with a raised 
gravel crest, along Soham Causeway to Ely. This raised part 
or causeway is believed to have been made, I should rather say 
repaired, for the first Bishop of Ely by a monk named John. 
(Ledger Book of Ely as quoted by Dugdale, Embank, cap. 41.) 
In those times it was not unfrequently said that a road was 
made by some one, when in fact it was only restored from a 
state of extreme decay upon the former foundation. Mr Litch- 



76 

field informed me that lie had a Roman fibula and spear-head 
from Soham Fen. 

I suspect that it left Ely along the high lands by Alderforth 
(perhaps Old Road) to Witchford, then passing a little to the 
north of Sutton (South Town) to Bury Steads, where it 
descended into the fen, and probably emerged again, after a 
distance of five miles, at Colne, the name of which shows that 
it probably is a Roman site. 

Mr Hartshorne (Salop. Antiq. 273) proposes a different 
course for this, which he calls the Saivtry Way. He com- 
mences it at Thetford, Cambridgeshire, 1\ miles south of Ely, 
and believes it to have passed by Stretham, Wilburton and 
Haddenham, where Roman vessels have been found (Cambridge 
Antiquarian Museum), to Earith, where fragments of Roman 
pottery were found in a field on his land, and given to the 
Wisbech Museum by Mr John Brown, a respected member of 
the Society of Friends, in 1818. What seem to have been 
British remains, such as "a dagger," are also mentioned by him 
as having been obtained from near the river Ouse at Earith. 
What is called the Bulwark at Earith lies between the two 
Bedford Rivers and may perhaps have been a Roman work. 
In the "restored contour" given in Fenland (p. 471) it is 
represented as rectangular with somewhat projecting angles, 
and each side as 200 feet in length within the vallum. 

A Roman bronze figure of about 9 inches in height, which 
is now in the British Museum, is represented of half the real 
size by the wood-cut on the opposite page. It was found near 
Earith, and is described and illustrated by the Rev. S. S. Lewis in 
the Gainb. Antiq. Comm. (iii. 231). Mr Brown, its former owner, 
also states, in a letter with which he has favoured me, that 
querns have been met with there : also in the same field where 
the pottery lay he found a "square of about 16 feet, set with 
common pebbles, about 2 feet below the soil, with a pebbled 
path leading from it;" also a coin of Commodus, and a small 



77 



Roman vase which is in the Wisbech Museum. This road then 
led to Needingworth and the neighbourhood of St Ives, whence 
it was continued along what is still called the Sawtry Way, 
which commences at about one mile to the west of St Ives. 
Should this be the correct view, it may have approached the 
river Ouse from Soham by crossing the narrow fen to Barraway, 




which, is on high land and just opposite to Thetford. Even 
under this supposition it seems highly probable that the line 
from Ely to Colne is also ancient. Dr Grove mentions (Camb. 
Univ. Reporter, 1880, 140) the discovery of a Romano-British 
cinerary urn, 7 inches in height in Haddenham Fen near the 
supposed line of this road. 

It is worthy of remark that there is another drier but 
circuitous route by which Thetford may be reached from Ford- 



78 

ham, viz. by keeping along the top of the narrow ridge of so- 
called "highland" by Wicken and Spinny Abbey to Fordey, 
and thence crossing the river to Thetford. The word Fordey, 
or Road Island, as it probably may be translated, is suggestive. 

It is also interesting to learn that a Roman coin was found 
at Spinny in 1856, and three coins of Antoninus near Wicken 
in 1859. The Rev. H. Pigot brought before the Cambridge 
Antiquarian Society (Nov. 29, 1880) several Roman funereal 
vessels which had been found near the north end of the ridge 
marked on the Ordnance Map as an "old road," which would 
be by the side of this supposed line of communication. It is 
interesting as showing that there must have been Roman habi- 
tations near to this now isolated spot, and probably the graves 
were as usual by the side of the road. 

On my supposition that this road went to Colne, it must 
have divided into two branches ; one going to the neighbour- 
hood of St Ives 1 to be continued along the Sawtry Way, as 
would also be the case on Mr Hartshorne's plan, the other 
proceeding to Bury near Ramsey in Huntingdonshire. Doubt- 
less there was some road from Bury to the Erming Street and 
Via Devana, and as much of the country lying to the west of 
Bury (Hunts.) must have been very difficult to traverse, it 
seems not unlikely that a road was directed towards Hunting- 
don, and perhaps also went to a ford at or near Hemingford or 
Holywell, so as to communicate with the Via Devana, which 
passes at not more than a mile to the south of the river at the 
former place. If this ford was at Holywell, the way probably 
passed by Swavesey ; but if, as seems far more probable, the 
Ouse was crossed at Hemingford, it is likely that the connecting 

1 Gorham states (St Neots, 15), on the authority of Hutchinson's MS. 
on Huntingdonshire, that there was a Roman post at Holywell near 
St Ives. He says that there was a chain of forts on the Ouse, viz. Sandy, 
Eynesbury, Godmanchester, and Holywell. The first three are well known ; 
the last I now hear of for the first time. 



79 

track was continued beyond the way to Cambridge, along what 
is now called the Moat Way, by Littlebury to Latenbury on 
the Erming Street, and possibly may have even extended by 
Graveley to join the road to Sandy. 

The modern Sawtry Way is a straight line of road com- 
mencing on Houghton Hill, and passing by King's and Abbot's 
Ripton and Wood Walton to join the Erming Street or Stan- 
gate, near Sawtry. 

Mr Litchfield had a small sacrificial cup made of bronze of 
about 6 inches in height, with two handles formed in imita- 
tion of the caduceus of Mercury, and on each side a centaur, 
one of which is playing upon a pipe. It was found in the deep 
cutting made for the railroad, near Somersliam. 

At a later period there seems to have been considerable 
communication across the Ouse near St Ives, which caused the 
contiguous villages of Hemingford Grey and Abbots to s]3ring 
up on the south side, and Wyton and Houghton similarly on 
the northern side of the river. 

11. Aldreth Causeway. — There is an ancient road which 
each of the tracks just mentioned crosses at right angles : in the 
one case near Witcham, and in the other at Haddenham. As 
much of this road as is nearly certainly ancient, is almost parallel 
to the Akeman Street, and served, like it, as a way from the drier 
lands near Cambridge to the islands in the fen. Before the 
diversion of the waters of the Ouse from what is now called the 
Old Ouse or Old West River to the magnificent artificial cuts 
known as the Bedford Rivers, the access to those islands must 
have been always difficult and often nearly impossible. The 
Romans reached them by means of the road from Cambridge to 
Ely (the Akeman Street), crossing the river and its accompany- 
ing, fen near Stretham; and their judgment in selecting this 
route is shown by its having continued with little interruption, 
and with only slight deviations from its line, to be the principal 
way into the Isle of Ely up to the present time. At a late 



80 

period of the middle ages, and until the modern causeway near 
Stretham was formed, a track starting from Cottenham and 
crossing the West River at Twenty-pence Ferry communicated 
with Wilburton. If we proceed up the old valley of the Ouse 
from Twenty-pence Ferry we soon arrive at the road first 
mentioned in this paragraph. It is called the Mare Way and 
is probably first seen at about half way between Rampton and 
Willingham, at a spot marked by a sort of square on the 
Ordnance Map, but concerning which we can form no conjecture 
as it is now quite altered by the enclosure of the land. From 
that place it may be faintly traced as a raised road (but with 
two singular breaks in its continuity, where it terminates 
abruptly to recommence at a distance of 50 or 60 yards, at first 
to the left and in the other instance to the right hand of its 
former course) until it reaches Belsar's Hill. This is a large 
nearly circular camp inclosing about 6 acres, the ramparts of 
which have been much lowered since the enclosure of the 
district and seem to be gradually disappearing under the plough. 
This camp is supposed to derive its name from Belisarius the 
Roman general, and to have been occupied by him in his war 
with the Vandals w T hom Probus had planted in Cambridgeshire 
(E. A. Freeman in lit.). It seems improbable that he made it ; 
and if Aldreth Causeway and the Mare Way are Roman, as 
some reasonably believe, the Belsar's Hill was probably a 
British fort altered and occupied by the Roman troops. From 
Belsar's Hill to Aldreth the Mare Way is more distinct. It 
crosses the Old Ouse River at High Bridge, Avhich is now in a 
very dilapidated state, for I learn that it has not been repaired 
since I was there a few years since, when both the abutments 
of the wooden bridge were gone and it was with much difficulty 
that it could be crossed. I was informed by the late Mr C. H. 
Cooper that a piece of land near the bridge is legally charged 
with its repair, and the owner ought to be required to 
make it passable and keep it so. It would be a misfortune if 



81 

this ancient and valuable means of access to the Isle of Ely was 
totally destroyed as seems not improbable. From the High 
Bridge the road is continued under the name of Aldreth Cause- 
way. It need scarcely be added that this name is a corruption 
of Etheldreda, the foundress of the Abbey of Ely. The existence 
of this name adds, in my opinion, to the probability of Wil- 
liam I. having found a road here, and not made it as some 
have supposed. His chief attack upon the Isle in his war with 
Hereward seems to have been made there (see Freeman's Norm. 
Conquest, iv. 472). This causeway, although now but little used, 
was once of such importance that (as I learned from the Rev. 
S. Banks, Rector of Cottenham, but formerly resident at Had- 
denham) various parishes in the fens are liable to provide for 
the repair of small parts of it respectively. From Aldreth the 
road is continued by what is called the Sand Way to Hadden- 
ham, and probably extended to Witcham, or even further. It 
is nearly certain that this line of communication was connected 
at its southern end with Cambridge, along what is now called 
Cuckoo Lane, and through the village of Histon. Between the 
above-mentioned square spot and the commencement of Cuckoo 
Lane it has been nearly obliterated by the enclosure of the land, 
but was still (in 1855) known by the name of Mare Way. 
Country people inform me that, before the enclosure, there was 
an old road that diverged to the right from the Via Devana at 
How House, and led to Histon : this may have been the original 
line to Cambridge. 

At Rampton, about a mile and a half to the south of Belsar's 
Hill, there is a curious quadrangular mound defended by a 
deep and broad ditch, and also an outer bank upon three of its 
sides. It is called Giant's Hill, and inclosed the old residence 
of the De Lisle family. Close, behind Giant's Hill there is an 
oblong mound called Giant's Grave, now covered with brush- 
wood. A gold coin of Nero was found at Rampton in 1858 
(Camb. Chron, Dec. 4, 1858); also a Roman Urn was found 
b. 6 



82 

there in 1843, and is in the Cambridge Antiquarian Museum. 
At Cottenham, which lies at about half way between this road 
and the Akeman Street, a fourth brass coin of Gratianus, a small 
Roman urn, the neck of a large vase, and part of an amphora 
have been found, and are in the Cambridge Antiquarian 
Museum. 

Also, the late Rev. S. Banks had several vases and a beauti- 
ful Roman bust which were found in the parish of Cottenham 
near to the borders of Landbeche parish, in some gravel pits 
which were rich in broken Roman pottery, and closely adjoin the 
supposed line of the Car Dyke which is described on a future 
page. A figure of this bust, which has been acquired by the 
Fitzwilliam Museum, is here given of two-thirds the size of the 
original. Including the helmet it is about 7 inches in height, 
of which the helmet is 2 inches. The helmet was loose when 
found, but was apparently originally attached to the bust. The 
bust represents a Roman Emperor which Mr King supposes 
was Marcus Aurelius. The chief interest is found in the 
helmet, which " represents the face of a Gaul or Briton. The 
same character of face, the same lips and moustache may be 
seen on the statue of the Dying Gaul of the Capitol, or the 
earlier Pergamene sculpture. On the forehead is an ornament 
like the ring money of ancient Ireland ; behind ' which on each 
side above the ears are two snake-like figures. As the hair 
could not be represented in strong relief on a casque, it is 
merely indicated by a rough etching similar to that which is 
also used for shading on other parts of the face." (King, MS.) 

At Over, distant about two miles from the other side of this 
road, a denarius of Faustina the elder has been found ; also a 
great number of the copper coins of the lower empire, contained 
in the remains of a metal box, were obtained by Mr J. Symons. 
I was informed by Mr E. Litchfield that so far as could be 
made out they were mostly coins of Constantine. Also chains 
of complicated construction and apparently Roman, one having 



83 

large hooks attached, probably for hanging meat, the other in- 
tended to suspend a camp-kettle, were found at a depth of about 
5 feet in Over Fen, in 1850 (Camb. Antiquarian Museum). At 
Coveney, which is not far from Witcham, the beautiful British 
shields described in the ' Publications ' of the Society, and pre- 
served in its Museum, were found. (See p. 17.) 




About the year 1839, a flint weapon was found in the 
channel of the Old Ouse River, and in 1854, a fine bronze 
sword was met with near the same spot. Both of these arti- 
cles are in the Cambridge Antiquarian Museum. In about 
1840 the washing away of the soil brought to light a black 
Roman vase by the side of the Haddenham Engine-drain ; also 

6—2 



84 

a Roman coin was found in Haddenham churchyard, as I was 
informed by Mr Banks. 

In March 1857, as one of the labourers of Mr Thomas 
Greaves of Willingham was ploughing a field called " The 
Hempsalls," at the extremity of the parish adjoining Cottenham, 
the plough-share turned up something which attracted his 
attention. He made further search and found a considerable 
number of curious things which he brought to the village, 
when they proved to be of Roman origin. They are chiefly 
of bronze and consist of the detached remains of a baton or 
some similar object, consisting of several tubular pieces, and 
bosses forming apparently the ends. It is doubtful if all the 
pieces were found, as they do not fit exactly together, and the 
whole, if we have the whole, forms a rather short baton. One 
of the pieces is very remarkable, being ornamented with figures 
in very high relief: at the upper end a bust of Marcus Aure- 
lius apj3arently ; beneath it a naked boy ; to the left of the 
boy an eagle, which has lost its head, standing upon a ball ; 
this ball rests on a wheel. To the right of the boy is the head 
of a bovine animal with short conical horns and large erect 
ears. Beneath the bust and between the eagle and the ox there 
is a figure which may represent a dolphin. All the pieces seem 
to have been held in their places by a stick passing through 
them, a portion of which remains : the tube is about an inch in 
diameter. 

There are also remains of two other bronze batons of smaller 
size and simpler structure, consisting only of pieces of metal 
tube marked with rings externally, and knobs at each end. 
But their wooden part is gone, and it is difficult to correctly 
assign the several pieces to their proper relative places. 

There are also many detached pieces of bronze, and what 
appear to be the remains of a bit. In the same field were 
found (1) a vitrified ring with enamelled ornaments, (2) a large 
amber bead, (3) several rings of jet (?). 



85 

There were also found with the above things several curious 
little bronze figures of horsemen fully armed and mounted upon 
clumsy disproportioned horses (they are represented in the 
annexed woodcut, together with the above-described curious 
baton, all of one-fourth the true size). Also an eagle, an owl, 
several diminutive human masks, and two large semitrans- 
parent beads, one deep blue and the other lighter blue, were 





found. All these things are still in the possession of Mr Geo. 
Pegler, Schoolmaster at Willingham, to whom they were first 
taken. Mr Worthington Smith has made as good a represen- 
tation of them in the annexed cut as seems possible. They 
have all very much suffered from time and apparently from 
blows received during the cultivation of the field. The dotted 
lines mark the extent of each piece of the baton. 



86 

In Feb. 1881, a man ploughing in " Twenty-eight acre field " 
in Middle Fen, Willingham, turned up an earthen pot from 
about 7 inches beneath the surface. It was perfect and 
full of coins. He immediately smashed it to get at the coins, 
which were apparently very numerous, and were dispersed 
in the village. But many appear to have been rusted to- 
gether into a useless lump. Amongst those which have been 
examined there were small third brass coins of Aurelianus, 
Tacitus, Probus, Claudius Gothicus, Portumus, Tetricus, Vic- 
torianus, and some of the Constantine family. One or more 
other vessels were found in the same place soon afterwards, but 
nothing is known of them or their contents ; they fell into the 
hands of the labourers who destroyed them, and if anything 
was in them they appropriated it. 

Also a large collection of pieces of pottery (not broken 
pots but detached broken pieces) was found. Can they have 
been connected with one of .the marks made by the Agrimen- 
sores ? 

Bury near Ramsey. As it is believed that the station near 
Bury in Huntingdonshire has not been described, it is desirable 
to include some account of it. The village of Bury is situated at 
about a mile to the south of Ramsey in Huntingdonshire. The 
station is a little to the south of the church on a slight elevation 
called May Hill, but is not now to be easily traced. The eastern 
side nearly corresponds with the hedge by the road to Warboys, 
and is raised several feet above the road by scarping the slope 
of the hill. The northern end of this bank is occupied by the 
hedge, but in its southern half the hedge is placed at its base. 
The southern side of the station is to the north of a hedge at 
its eastern, and to the south of it at its western end. The 
western side is divided into two parts by the shape of the hill 
and the boggy ground at its base. It is formed with a terrace 
placed against the base, or rather cut out, of the hill just 
above the marsh, through which a brook flows at a short 



87 



distance. The parts of this side are nearly straight, and are 
connected by a curve ; along the whole of it the terrace is to 
be traced. The northern side appears now to be occupied by 
a hedge, but cannot be clearly made out. The inclosed space 




[J JS&W Jif1iS£ 



is large, being fully a furlong in length from north to south, 
but less from east to west, and narrower in its northern than 
its southern half. It is commandingly situated, and must have 
had great strength. Its interior rises into a Considerable hill 
for this flat district, and its highest point is capped by a large 
tumulus with a cup-shaped top. With the slight exception of 
the parts on the outside of the eastern and southern hedges, 



the whole forms one grass field, and does not appear to have 
ever been under the plough. See plan annexed. 

12. Bury to Wisbech and Spalding. — There is reason 
to suspect that a Roman road went from Bury (Hunts.), perhaps 
along an embankment crossing Bury Plashes to Ramsey; then 
by Cold Harbour, near Ramsey Mere to Benwick, where Roman 
coins have been found (Stukeley, Car. ii. 139); then by Apple- 
borough, near Doddington, where, in 1821, some copper coins of 
the Emperors Decentius and Constantius were found (Watson's 
Wisbech, 585). There has also been a recent discovery of a 
large quantity of Roman pottery at Wimbliugton, on the line 
of the railway, and near to it, as Mr W. E. Rose informs me ; 
he also tells me that near the same spot a vase was turned up by 
the plough in 1848, containing at least 2000 copper coins in a 
very decomposed state. Mr Rose states that, " curiously enough 
the bottom of the vase contained a piece of lead evidently run 
into it in a liquid state, the size and thickness being equal to a 
twopenny piece." He adds that "the whole of this locality 
[near Doddington] has produced Roman and British antiqui- 
ties." The track went by March, where, near to the church, 
there is a square entrenchment, having Burrow Moor and 
Burrow Farm adjoining it. It next crossed the Fen Road, and 
passing Coldham, where Mr Rose states, in the letter with which 
he has favoured me, that drain-pipes and other Roman frag- 
ments have been found ; and Waldersey, where a Roman vase 
was found in 1845. Also at the latter place, in the year 1785, 
" an earthen pot containing a considerable quantity of small 
copper coins, chiefly of Valentinianus and Arcadius, was dug up " 
(Watson's Wisbech, 507 and 508) ; and in 1845 a large Roman 
vase was found in Waldersey Fen, and presented to the Wisbech 
Museum by Mr W. Jecks, where most of the above-mentioned 
antiquities are also preserved. 

At and near to Wisbech many Roman coins have occurred. 
An aureus of Valentinianus, found in 1845, is in the Cambridge 



Antiquarian Museum. In the Wisbech Museum there are 
Roman coins found on the North Brink, and a Roman vase 
found in a field at South Brink, and coins from other parts of 
the neighbourhood. Beyond Wisbech the road ran at a 
short distance within the Roman sea-bank by Newton, where 
coins of Gallienus occurred in about the year 1787 (Watson's 
Wisbech, 487), and more recently of Yictorinus; by Tydd 
St Mary, near to which place at Tydd Go'ut, a vase was found 
in the Roman sea-bank, which is now in the Wisbech Museum, 
and then by Long Sutton and Fleet, to Spalding. My informa- 
tion concerning this part of the road is derived from a paper in 
the Reports, &c. of the Associated Architectural Societies (i. 340), 
in which it is described, and stated to be "probably the old 
British path on the borders of the marsh, it being still at Fleet 
called Haregate or Hergate. In the old terriars the road has the 
same name near Spalding. A part of this road at and beyond 
Moulton was originally a little to the north of the present road, 
and is still called Old Spalding Gate ;" otherwise it corresponds 
with the modern road. 

That part of the Roman bank which I have traced, extend- 
ing from close to Wisbech to Tydd Go'ut, is of immense size 
and presents the appearance of extreme antiquity. It seems to 
have followed the former coast-line through all its irregulari- 
ties. In excavating the Eau Brink cut near Lynn the Roman 
bank was cut through and found to stand upon a bed of clay, 
over which 4 or 5 feet of deposits had accumulated. The 
clay was 8 feet thick, and rested upon peat which contained 
oak, alder, beech, fir, and hazel branches, stems and roots, 
evidently on the site of their growth. It was only about 3^ 
feet above low-water mark (from a Newspaper paragraph 
signed J. A. C, June 24, 1850). 

It must be confessed that the whole of the above line of sup- 
posed road is chiefly founded upon probability, and the discovery 
of antiquities. The undoubted existence of Roman sea-banks on 



90 

the coast of the Wash, shows that this district was considered 
of value at that period. Dugdale was fully convinced that 
the sea-board of Marshland and Holland was gained from the 
sea by the Romans {Embanking, cap. 34). At Walsoken near 
Wisbech, and close to the Roman sea-bank, two coins of Con- 
stantine were found and presented to the Wisbech Museum 
(Camb. Ghron. March 2, 1850). At Walpole St Peter, a few 
miles to the north of Wisbech, and also close to these sea-banks, 
Mr E. Cony stated that a tenant of his, " who lives under 
the bank, upon digging in his garden, about 3 feet under 
ground, found many Roman bricks, and an aqueduct made with 
earthen pipes. These pipes were made of pale reddish earth, 
and grew bard again upon their being exposed some time to the 
air ; the length of these was 20 inches, the bow 3f inches, 
the thickness of their sides half an inch, one of the ends much 
smaller than the other." (In a letter from E. Cony, Esq., 
to R. Gale, Esq., dated Nov. 8, 1727, in Bibl. Topog. Brit. 
(Reliq. Gal.) iii. 49.) 

A spear, the umbo of a shield, an earthen vessel, and a 
glass drinking-cup, similar to those figured by Mr C. R. Smith 
(Collectanea Antiqua, ii. t. 51), were found on a slightly 
elevated spot near Somersham [now called Chatteris] Ferry. 
They are described and figured in the Gentleman s Magazine 
(xxxvi. 119) by Dr Stukeley, and although called British by 
him were undoubtedly Saxon remains. "In 1824, an earthen 
vessel, which contained about 1000 small copper coins, chiefly 
of Constantius, many of Constans and Constantine, and a 
few with the... emblem of Romulus and Remus suckled by the 
wolf, was ploughed up near the [same] ferry, two miles from the 
town, on the site of the ancient river or West Water " (Watson's 
Wisbech, 578). 

A large Roman vase was found at Chatteris in 1830 
(height 15 inches, breadth 18 inches), and a small sepulchral 
vase containing ashes in 1819, both of which were presented 



91 

to the Wisbech Museum by Mr J. Girdlestone ; also in the 
course of the works for the railroad near to that place, a 
large vase (height 16 inches, breadth 17 inches) containing 
bones was dug up and given to that museum by Mr W. E. 
Rose. 

Near the road leading from Somersham to Chatteris, an 
urn with Roman coins, and others with sixty coins of the 
later emperors, were found in 1731 (Gough's Camden, 159). 
And Dr Stukeley states (Reliq. Gal. in Bibl. Topog. Brit. iii. 
115) that Roman coins and antiquities have been found at 
Somersham. 

At Cold Harbour, which is close to what was Ramsey Mere, 
this supposed road appears to have divided, a branch towards 
the north being called Gnut's Dyke, which will be noticed pre- 
sently (p. 95). 

13. The Bullock Road. — For convenience I have em- 
ployed this name to denote a road extending from Verulamium 
to Chesterton on the Nen, with a branch to Godmanchester ; 
although it only bears that denomination in a part of its 
course, which may perhaps rightly be considered as a British 
Way rather than a Roman Street. It is hoped that this 
extension of the name will not be considered as very objec- 
tionable, when it is remembered that there is no name for 
the part of it which was certainly used, and perhaps much 
improved, by the Romans. It scarcely touches our county, 
but as some miles of it appear on the map it ought to be 
noticed here. If we commence at Baldock, where it crossed 
the Icknield Way, we find it to have nearly coincided with 
the modern turnpike-road for many miles to Biggleswade. At 
less than a mile from Baldock we arrive at Norton Bury, 
where, as has been already stated, a road to Shefford pro- 
bably branched from it. A few miles in advance there is 
a Caldecot near to it on the right ; and at a few miles further 
we meet with Stratton. Due east of Biggleswade it crosses 



92 

the Akeman Street, and leaving Road Farm a little to the 
right the modern road deserts it, and it follows the line of a 
fence, but is nearly or quite effaced for about a mile. It then 
reappears by a tumulus near to Fursdon Hall, and may be 
seen crossing the marshy land to Stratford and Chesterfield 
(or Chesterton, as named by Gorliam), the site of Salens, 
as is supposed by many authors. But Mr Beldam {Arch. Journ. 
xxv. 44), and Mr Watkin (A. J. xxxix. 268), attempt with some 
success to prove that they are in error, and that we do not 
know the name of the Roman station at Sandy. However that 
may be, we may follow the majority of antiquarians in calling 
it Salence, until more evidence is obtained concerning the site 
of that station, or the true name of that which was at Sandy is 
discovered. 

On the opposite side of the river Ivel there are again two 
Caldecots. On Galley Hill, above Stratford, there is a Roman 
fort (probably that called Chesterton by Stukeley, Itin. Cur. 
74), very strongly situated, as the sandy hill slopes abruptly 
from its ramparts on three of the sides. Separated from this 
fort by a narrow and deep valley is a point of elevated land, 
which is nearly surrounded by abrupt slopes, and has a very 
deep trench and lofty embankment drawn across the narrow 
neck, which connects it with the adjoining elevated district. 
This seems to have been the British settlement: the people 
now call it Caesar's Camp, but it is certainly not Roman. Ex- 
actly opposite to the camp on Galley Hill there is a ford of the 
river Ivel, which was defended on its western side by the ancient 
ramparts called Beeston Berrys, of which there are now only 
faint traces to be seen. It is uncertain what was the exact site 
of the Roman town ; and indeed as the space between the hills 
and the marshes is narrow, it may have been of considerable 
length, and trusted for its defence to the fortifications on the 
higher ground above it. My friend Mr Arthur Taylor placed 
it at the spot occupied by the railway station, above which 



93 

there is an irregular hill-top fortified along its curved edge by a 
tolerably strong rampart, but quite open at its eastern side, 
where it adjoins the hill-country. This is the place called 
Caesar's Camp. If the station was at the place supposed by 
Mr Taylor, the road probably ascended the hill through a hollow 
on its north-western side. The Roman station is more usually 
placed at Chesterfield, about a quarter of a mile to the south of 
the railway station ; and Dr Bennet states (Lysons Bedford, 27) 
that " from the north-east side of the [Roman] station, near the 
banks of the Ivel, this road continues through a small valley, 
leaving the British camp above-mentioned [Caesar's Camp] on 
the left-hand, and another hill which has been dug up for a 
stone-quarry on the right, straight to a hedge-row, which runs 
down through a piece of land to a small copse in the bottom 
[probably Hawksbury Wood], thence it continues -equally 
straight, first as a boundary between Mr Pym's land and 
Sandy field [the Hasell Hedge], and then entering some en- 
closures crosses the road to Everton and Tempsford, then 
passes through a farm -yard, leaving the house [Gibraltar] to 
the left, and through some more enclosures to a farm-house 
[Low Farm, which is in Cambridgeshire], which stands upon 
it, then through another enclosure to Tempsford Marsh [where 
there is a Cold Harbour a little on the right] ; after passing 
which it ascends the hill close to a barrow or tumulus, almost 
the invariable attendant on Roman roads." This tumulus is 
now destroyed, and its exact site unknown. Taking up the 
account of the road from this place, as given by Gorham 
{St Neots, pp. 3 and 4), and starting from Crane Hill, upon 
some part of which this tumulus stood, it bears north-east, 
" leaving the manor farm of Puttock's Hardwich and Lansbury 
grounds a little on the west, it forms the boundary between 

Eynesbury and Abbotsley parishes It crosses the road from 

St Neots to Cambridge close to the village of Weal ; the main 
road being cut off from its course, and forming an elbow of 



94 

about 200 yards upon the very line of the Roman Street." Soon 
afterwards it forms the boundary of Cambridge and Huntingdon 
shires near Graveley, and then bears directly for Godmanchester. 
Mr Gorham justly remarks, that " it is not to be distinguished 
by an elevated crest... the repeated action of the plough has 
completely obliterated its former character ; it consequently 
presents to the eye nothing more than an ordinary field-track." 
It does not seem to have entered the hexagonal station at 
Godmanchester, but passing along its western side, as the Via 
Devana did along the north-eastern, combined with it and the 
Erming Street to cross the Ouse. This is the Roman line, and 
we have now to endeavour to trace the British Way, which 
probably separated from it at a little to the south of Puttock's 
Hardwich, (if indeed it did not come along the valley from 
Sandy,) and went to Eynesbury, then crossed the Ouse probably 
at Eaton ford and went by Stirtlow (Streetlow ?), Buckden, 
Brampton Hut, where it was crossed by the Via Devana, to 
Alconbury Weston, where near Hail Weston, on the way to 
Great Stoughton and to the south of the road, a bronze figure 
of Mercury is recorded by the Rev. G. C. Gorham to have been 
found. He gives a map of the remains in that neighbourhood. 
(Archceol. xxi. 550, t. 27.) For about a mile beyond that place, 
the exact line that it followed is not known. It then com- 
mences being called by the name of the Bullock Road at Upton, 
and soon passes by Coppingford and Cold Harbour. After 
advancing five miles we find another Cold Harbour, imme- 
diately after passing which the road crosses to the west of 
Billing Brook, thereby departing from the straight course to 
Chesterton. Probably it originally kept to the eastern side of 
the brook, and arrived at Chesterton by the " convenient ridge 
of high ground " mentioned by Horsley (Brit. Rom. 431). It is 
also probable that this part of the ancient road obtained its 
present name from being used by the drovers taking their 
cattle along it on the way to the great market at St Ives. 



95 

It is well known that they always followed the grassy parish- 
roads, when in their power, so as to avoid toll-gates and 
obtain ways more suited to the feet of cattle than the hard 
turnpike roads. 

14. Cnut's Dyke. — This now forms the foundation of the 
road from Bodsey near Ramsey to Pond's Bridge, and was con- 
tinued by Horsey Hill and Standground to Peterborough. It 
runs by the side of Cnut's, or Suard's, or Oakley's Delph, and 
also bears those names. It forms the boundary of Cambridge- 
shire throughout nearly the whole of its course. Reynolds 
(Anton. 258) says that it was a paved causeway. It is older 
than the time of Cnut (as is shown below under the head of 
Car Dyke, p. 110), and is very probably Roman. 

IV. ANCIENT DITCHES. 

The four remarkable ancient ditches which are found in the 
southern part of Cambridgeshire are well deserving of atten- 
tion, both from the grandeur of execution which is seen in two 
of them — for they are, it is believed, the strongest boundary 
ditches to be found in the kingdom — and from the remarkably 
skilful manner in which they have been planned so as to serve 
the purpose of their makers, and at the same time be of the 
least extent possible. From the fact that the elevated rampart 
is certainly on the eastern side of three of them, it may be 
stated with confidence that they were made by the inhabitants 
of the district now forming the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, 
as a defence against the attacks of the people of the interior. If 
it is really the fact that the Roman roads have been cut through 
the dykes in at least three places ; as is stated by several of the 
older antiquaries who saw them at a time when inclosure had 
not altered the surface of the country as is now the case, nor 
the turnpike-roads been formed which represent the ancient 
Roman or British lines of way, and when therefore there was 



96 

far more certainty to be attained concerning the line of these 
ways ; if, I repeat, the Romans did cut through the banks 
and fill up the ditches to make their roads, then of course 
the ditches were formed before the complete Roman settle- 
ment of this district. Some persons have supposed that they 
were made by the followers of Boadicea, others that they were 
the work of invaders, perhaps Belgse, to secure the district 
conquered from the former Celtic inhabitants. It seems nearly 
if not quite impossible to lay down the course of the Icknield 
Way, and the Roman Road which undoubtedly succeeded it, so 
as to avoid crossing one or more of these ditches ; and had the 
ditches been works of a later time than the roads, we could 
hardly expect to have found the gaps cut exactly upon the line 
of the roads, as seems to be the case with that near Pampisford, 
even if so much cannot be said with certainty concerning those 
in the Balsham and Devil's ditches. 

Mr Beldam appears to have set this question at rest as far 
as concerns the Heydon Ditch and the dykes found at about a 
mile and a half to the west of Royston, for which I am not 
acquainted with any special name. He appears to have called 
them the Mile Ditches. " They consist of three ditches very 
rudely cut between four banks, which commenced from a 
tumulus on the heath, a quarter of a mile to the south, and 
went straggling down to the Bassingbourn Spring-head, a dis- 
tance of about 2| miles, crossing the Icknield Way in their 
course." He mentions various antiquities near to them, for an 
account of which I must refer to his apparently quite exhaus- 
tive paper (Archmol. Journ. xxv. 37). He there tells us that he 
caused the spot where these ditches cross the old Icknield Way 
(now the Baldock Turnpike road) to be examined, and " ascer- 
tained that the ditches terminate on either side of the road, 
leaving a space of solid chalk of about 16 or 18 feet in width, 
over which the old road undoubtedly passed, and proving there- 
fore the priority of the road to the ditches." Unfortunately Dr 



97 

Guest does not notice these Mile ditches. His general idea of 
the ditches was that the Fleam and DeviVs Ditches are of Saxon 
construction, the Heydon Ditch was made by Cassibelaunus, 
the Pampisford Ditch by Cunobeline. 

However this may be, there is no doubt that in the Saxon 
period they . formed the boundary between East Anglia and 
Mercia; and that the easternmost of them marked the limit of 
the halidome of St Edmund's Abbey at Bury, in the time of 
King Cnut. Until recently also it was the boundary of the 
diocess of Norwich. Each of these ditches extending from fen 
or marshy land to a wooded country, and quite crossing the 
narrow open district which lay between the woods and the fen, 
by which alone East Anglia could be approached without 
great difficulty, must have presented a formidable obstacle to 
the usual predatory inroads which constituted so large a part of 
the warfare of those ages. 

1. The Devil's Ditch. — This is the most easterly of these 
remarkable works, and by far the greatest although not the 
longest of them. It extends across Newmarket Heath from 
the fens at Reche to the woodlands at Camois Hall near Wood 
Ditton (Ditch town), and is nearly straight throughout, lying 
from north-west to south-east. It is very perfect, but more 
especially so at the end nearest Reche and in the neighbour- 
hood of Stetchworth Park. Many gaps have been cut through 
it by filling up the ditch with the materials of the bank, and 
it is now impossible to determine at what dates they were 
made. One called the Running Gap probably allowed the 
ancient road (the Peddar Way) from Chesterford to Exning to 
pass ; but concerning this I must refer to the remarks already 
made. Another permitted the Icknield Way to pass ; and the 
others have been made for purposes which it is not now easy to 
point out. The first mention of it with which I am acquainted 
is that King Edward the elder fought a battle near to it (inter 
B. 7 



98 

duo fossata sancti Eadraundi) in the year 902, as recorded by 
Matthew of Westminster (Flores Hist. fol. 268). The other 
ditch was doubtless the Balsham Dyke. According to measure- 
ments made by Sir H. Dryden and communicated to the Rev. 
C. H. Hartshorne, the bank is 18 feet above the level of the 
country, 80 feet above the bottom of the ditch, and 12 feet in 
width at the top ; the width of the ditch is 20 feet ; the length 
of the slope of the bank on its eastern side is 30 feet, and that 
of the bank and ditch together 46 feet. But these measure- 
ments differ considerably from those made by Mr A. J. Kempe, 
F.S.A., and communicated to the Society of Antiquaries in 
March, 1843. He states that at a little to the south of the 
Cambridge and Newmarket Road " the vallum presents an 
escarpment inclined at an angle of 70 degrees, which, measured 
along the slope, is 90 feet in length. On the top of the vallum 
is a cursus or way about 18 feet in width." The ditch is 
certainly very different in its proportions in different parts, and 
may have been so originally. I am inclined to prefer Sir H. 
Dryden's measurements as being nearest to the truth in most 
parts, although in some those of Mr Kempe are more nearly 
correct. Measurements of this kind are very difficult to make 
with complete accuracy. The part measured by Mr Kempe is 
certainly far less altered by filling up and degradation than is 
usual. It is a most magnificent work there. In its more 
perfect parts it probably is very nearly of its original form and 
size, as its surface has apparently never been disturbed since 
the turf first grew over it. At Stetchworth there is a rather 
large and almost square camp close to its western side, which 
may have been Roman. At Reche coins of Constans, and of 
the type bearing URBS ROMA, have been found ; in Bottisham 
Fen, Roman vessels and also bronze fibulae ; in Burwell Fen, 
Roman vessels and a coin of Alexander Severus and Domitianus. 
These places lie north and south, and at a short distance from 
Reche. The Rev. J. Hailstone had a small Roman bronze key 



99 

found at Anglesey Abbey, and the late Lord Braybrooke a 
small Roman vessel dug up at Dullingbam. 

2. The Fleam or Balsham Dyke. — This is seven miles 
to the west of the Devil's Ditch. It is not straight like the 
Devil's Ditch, but considerably curved in several parts of its 
course, to meet the requirements of the ground. It commenced 
at Fen Ditton (named from this Ditch, as was Wood Ditton, 
from the Devil's Ditch), probably close to the river Cam, just 
below the church, and may still be traced along the road to 
Quy, which is formed in part below its bank and in part upon 
it. At Quy bridge we lose sight of it, indeed Wilbraham Fen 
was a sufficient defence from that point until we arrive at Great 
Wilbraham. At about half a mile to the south of the latter 
place it commences again, and may be followed (although much 
reduced by cultivation) running due south to Shardlow's Well, 
near Fulbourn. It then shows itself in all its greatness, and 
continues in beautiful preservation for several miles to the 
south-east, until approaching Balsham it is again much injured. 
The depth of this ditch from the top of the bank is now, in its 
best preserved part, about 20 feet. The detached part near 
Ditton is not quite two miles in length, but the other portion, 
extending from Wilbraham to Balsham, is not less than six 
miles long. It crosses the supposed line of the Icknield Way 
near to a tumulus called Mutlow Hill, and is said to have been 
filled up to allow it to pass ; but of that, however probable it 
may be, there is no proof. As has been already stated, the 
Peddar Way seems to have passed it at the point where it 
forms an angle at Shardlow's Well, and where also it has been 
levelled at some former period. 

Here again we have a line of defence drawn from the wood- 
lands across an open chalky district to the fens. We also see 
how advantage was taken of the fenny spot near Wilbraham to 
avoid the necessity of making about two miles of artificial 
defence. It must be remembered that at the ancient period 
LeFC. 7—2 



100 

when these ditches were made, the fens consisted probably of a 
series of islands surrounded by morasses and lakes, although 
not so wet as they became in the middle ages from the silting 
up of the outfalls of the rivers which pass through them ; that 
a nearly detached piece of fen, like that at Wilbraham, was 
almost always flooded and was very probably a permanent lake ; 
and that the Cam and other rivers ran for many miles above 
the true fen districts through a continuous, although often 
narrow, line of marshes 1 . If then a fortification was made 
extending from the edge of the fen, or of the fenny banks of the 
Cam, or one of its tributaries, across the open belt of country 
until it reached the extensive woodlands lying towards the 
south-east, a very perfect security would be obtained against 
the cattle-driving propensities of the neighbours of those who 
made the ditch. We have seen that this is what was done in 
the case of the two ditches already noticed, and such will also 
be found to be the fact in the two instances which remain to be 
described. 

3. The Brent or Pampisford Ditch — This is only 
about one mile and three quarters in length, and of slight 
depth. It begins at a place called Brent-ditch End at Pam- 
pisford, and extends in a nearly south-east direction through 
the plantations of Pampisford Hall. It may be traced to a 
spot close to Abington Park, but did not quite certainly ter- 
minate there, for considerable changes have been made in the 
arrangement of the ground : as, however, the woodland com- 
menced thereabouts it probably did not extend much beyond 
that spot. Mr Hartshorne says that " it has no bank on either 
side," but that " the vallum was on the same side as that of 
the other dykes," viz. the eastern. I do not quite understand 

1 A good idea of the fen islands may be obtained from the map, derived 
from a survey made in the year 1604, and published in Colonel John 
Armstrong's History of the Navigation of the Port of King's Lynn and 
of Cambridge. Fol. Loudon, 1767. 



101 

this remark, but an examination of it near Pampisford Hall, 
where it is in the best preservation, has shown that there is a 
low but well-marked bank on its western side, and no trace of 
one on the eastern. Mr Beldam however considered the earth 
to have been thrown out equally on both sides, though possibly 
the elevation on the western side is slightly the greatest. In 
the winter when the trees are leafless this is well seen. The 
turnpike-road which now represents the Icknield Way crosses 
it, and the ditch is filled up by the side of the road. This 
might be taken for the place where the old way crossed, was it 
not known (as I learned from the late W. P. Hamond, Esq. of 
Pampisford Hall) to be of recent formation. Dr Mason states 
(Gough's Camden, 141), that " towards the middle it has been 
filled up for the Icknield Way to pass over it"; and the spot 
referred to by him must be the site of the present road, as 
there is no other gap. 

At Brent-ditch End a marshy district commences, which is 
connected with and continued along the course of the river Rhe, 
or Cam, until it joins the great level of the fens. 

4. The Brand or Heydon Ditch. — It commences at 
the southern end of a tract of fen called Melbourn Common 
just at the spot where the brook (which is connected with a 
branch of the river Cam) that flows through the common rises 
at several beautiful springs. At that point its rampart and fosse 
were recently very conspicuous, but the latter is rendered less 
apparent by a hedge having been planted in it. It may be 
traced over the slightly undulating country for about two miles 
to Heydon Grange, and then up the hill for another mile to the 
village of Heydon. 

The vallum, which was lofty, is on the eastern side, but it 
has been nearly levelled and the ditch filled up as far as Heydon 
Grange ; and the remainder has been more or less levelled by 
the filling of the ditch and lowering of the rampart. When 
last I saw it, now at least 30 years since, a small part of the 



102 

rampart close to the place where it is crossed by the road from 
Foulmire to Barley retained its coating of turf, but I believe 
that even that small part of this ditch has since been destroyed. 
The measurements of this ditch axe very difficult to determine, 
owing to the destructive agency of time, and more especially of 
modern agriculture. In places the rampart had at least seven 
feet of vertical elevation above the ground level. On the 
whole this ditch is, like the three already described, a very 
remarkable and interesting work. Mr Beldam estimated that 
the entire width of this work "from the western edge of the 
ditch to the eastern edge of the vallum, must have been at 
least 80 feet." Near to Heydon Grange, where it crosses the 
Icknield Way, he " ran a trench across the road, as near as 
possible to the point of junction, and where (if any) the ditch 
must have been," and "found a solid and undisturbed bottom 
at the depth of about 2| feet ; from which the inference seems 
certain that the road existed before the dyke." The road re- 
ferred to is not the Roman way but the British Icknield way. 

The late Lord Bray brook e discovered on the summit of the 
hill at Heydon a chamber. " At the depth of 4 feet [the 
workmen] struck on three walls built with bricks of solid 
clunch-chalk, so as to present a longitudinal cul de sac. On 
clearing this of loose soil (apparently some kind of ash) the 
chamber appeared about 10 feet deep from the top. 9 long 
by 5 broad ; the centre being occupied by a species of altar in 
solid clunch, attached to the end wall at the narrow or cross 
wall. All round three sides of this there was a passage with 
just room to squeeze round between it and the wall on the 
three sides; in the centre of this, on the floor, there was a 
gutter 3 inches in diameter. The remains taken from this 
excavation were : a good bronze bracelet, in good preservation ; 
two or three iron instruments ; one coin of Constantinus II., in 
brass; and a great many bullocks' horns" (Jour. Archceol. Assoc. 
in. 340). 



103 



M 



c 

« 2-2- 



! 



—10 • o— '— 



K... 



■ r 





iacfcx=£DC^)acjar 

oaaDg^anaoL, 




104 

In the next volume of the same Journal (iv. 76) Mr Joseph 
Clarke gave the illustrations of this curious work, reproduced 
on the preceding page by the kind permission of the Association. 
He describes " the bottom or floor," B, as consisting of " lumps 
of clunch forming a hard conglomerate; on this floor, at the 
northern part of the building, is another raised smaller portion, 
C [the altar of Lord Braybrooke's account], of the same material 
and about a foot in height. Around three sides of the floor, B, 
the fourth side at G being so disturbed as to defy exact lo- 
cation (but I judge that there could be none), is a trench, A, 
which was found filled with charcoal, ashes, &c. ; it is about 18 
inches deep, and about as much wide, terminating abruptly at 

E, in a peculiar, narrow, small, deep channel, not more than 
two or three inches in width." " Surrounding the whole is a 
roughly built wall, composed of irregular pieces of clunch [hard 
lower chalk] rudely squared ; it is about four feet high from 
the bottom of the trench and forms one side of it. The corner, 

F, presents an appearance of arching, which suggests the idea 
of its having been domed... ; but if this supposition be correct, 
it must have been very low, the springing of the overhanging 
blocks of chalk being not more than 2' 6" from the floor, B." 
But this curious work had doubtless no connection with the 
Ditch, and I have seen it stated to be one of the terminal marks of 
the Boman Agrimensores, concerning whom and their work an 
interesting account will be found in the Archceol. Association 
Journal (xxvu. 268). 

Dr Guest considered the Brand Ditch to have been made at 
the period of the second great Belgic conquest (c. B.C. 90) ; the 
Pampisford Ditch about A. D. 30 ; the Fleam Ditch in the seventh 
century ; and the Devil's Ditch at the close of the ninth century 
{Archceol. Journ. xi. 393). 

[5. Foss or Devil's Dyke in Norfolk. — At the edge of 
my map there will be seen two detached ditches and banks 
which are much slighter than the ditches of Cambridgeshire. 



105 

The bank of the southern of them was about nine feet thick 
with the ditch on its eastern side. The height of the bank above 
the ditch can scarcely have exceeded seven feet. The northern 
ditch also has its trench towards the east, and it was shallower. 
The bank (excluding the trench) is about seven feet high. 
Mr Woodward, in his map of Roman Norfolk, marks this as 
being a British road from Brandon by Oxburg to Narburgh 
Camp ; but his view does not appear to be borne out by the 
course it seems really to take. It has more probably been a 
line of defence, like the Cambridgeshire ditches ; for it com- 
mences abruptly at the river side at Brandon, not being dis- 
coverable on the south side of the, fen, and towards the north 
it terminates at the fenny district of the Stoke River, near 
Cranwick : this is the southern part called Foss or Devil's Dyke. 
The northern part, also called Devil's Dyke, appears similarly 
to cross a dry district between fens. It probably commenced 
at Beachamwell by the fen side, not at Oxburg, which lies to 
the south of this fen district, and extended to Narburgh on the 
fen by the side of the river Nar. See Map in the Archceologia, 
xxiii., or Woodward's Norwich Castle.] 



V. THE CAR DYKE. 

To the north of Peterborough the ancient ditch or canal 
called the Gar Dyke is well known, and therefore, as that 
part of it is altogether out of our county, no description 
of it is requisite in this treatise. Its channel is stated to 
have there been 60 feet in width, with a broad flat bank upon 
each side (Rep. &c. of Assoc. Archit. Soc. i. 338). 

To the south of Peterborough the state of things is very 
different : indeed it may be doubted if any antiquary, except 
Stukeley, has felt convinced that it really did extend into 
Cambridgeshire, 



106 

The origin of the Car Dyke is altogether unknown, although 
it is perhaps rightly ascribed to the Romans. Stukeley thought 
that "Car" was a contraction of Carausius, to whom he referred 
nearly every ancient work in this part of England. If we 
could see any proof that he did perform even a small part of 
what Stukeley attributes to him, he would indeed deserve to 
be considered as a benefactor to the country, and lauded as he 
was by his above-named historian. We know very little* con- 
cerning him ; the history of his time being lost : and it seems 
peculiarly bold to attempt the compilation of an account of his 
reign from his coins alone. It cannot be denied that Stukeley 
has shewn singular ingenuity in the attempt that he made to 
do this, and the extensive learning and large collection of facts 
recorded in his book must always make it of great value to the 
antiquary. 

Stukeley, as has been already stated, called Cambridge 
Granta, and supposed that it was founded by Carausius at 
the southern end of the Car Dyke, which he considered either 
to have been made, or, at any rate, restored by him from a 
useless state. He supposed it to have been formed to act as a 
navigable canal from the corn-country of this part of England 
to York. He states that the same Emperor established Stour- 
bridge Fair as part of this great plan of internal communication. 
I confess that this, and many other things in the MAallio 
History of Carausius, are quite beyond my powers of belief. 

The emperor Julian, according to his own written testimony, 
(Orat. ad S. P. Q. Atheniensem) employed no less than six 
hundred vessels in the exportation of corn and flour to supply 
the towns and fortresses on the Rhine at about the middle of 
the fourth century. To meet a sudden call of this kind the 
cultivation of Britain must have been far more general in the 
time of the Romans than we moderns have usually been inclined 
to allow. Gibbon (ed. 1825, ii. 427) thought that each vessel 
might be of 70 tons' burthen (a very small allowance), and 



107 

thus calculated that they were capable of exporting 120,000 
quarters of grain. 

One of Stukeley's remarks concerning Stourbridge Fair may 
amuse the readers of this treatise. He says, "Memorials of 
the antiquity of the fair, and of the religious observances there 
performed in Roman times, are kept up in several particulars ; 
as of the Arch-flamen of Granta, in the Vice-Chancellor of the 
University, proclaiming it with much solemnity : of divine ser- 
vice, and a sermon celebrated in a pulpit set up for the purpose, 
on the two Sundays, in the chief part of the fair called the 
Duddery." (Garaus. i. 206.) 

An account of this very important fair will be found in 
Nichols's Biblioth. Topog. Britan. (v. 73), where a plan of the 
fair is given, and a number of deeds relating to it. It was 
granted to the Hospital for Lepers by King John, and 'the place 
was then called Steresbrig. See also Rogers's Hist, of Agric. 
Prices (i. 141). He considers it to have been by far the most 
important in the east and south of England, and gives a full 
account of it. It occupied a space of about half a mile square, 
and separate streets were appropriated to separate trades. It 
lasted for three weeks, commencing on the 18th of September. 
A curious account of the fair in 1789 will be found in Gunning 's 
Reminiscences (i. 162 — 173). 

But to proceed to the consideration of the supposed southern 
part of the Car Dyke. It seems highly probable that there 
was a navigable cut through the district forming the edge of 
the fens, and one of the courses laid down by Stukeley may 
very likely belong to it. Of the two routes to be found de- 
scribed in his works, it is best totally to neglect that given in 
Part I. (pp. 199, 200) of the Medallic History, for in Part II. 
(p. 137), which was published several years after the first 
part, he has quite changed his views on the subject, 
and reverted nearly to the account which he had long before 
given in his Paleographia. He says, "just below Cambridge 



108 

the artificial cut opens into the river, runs along the side of it, 
taking the benefit of higher water, for half a mile " {Gar. 199) ; 
and it may be presumed, therefore, that he supposed it to 
commence near Milton. "A little above Waterbeche," as he 
says in another place {Paleog. ii. 38), " begins our famous Car 
Dyke. The bed of this artificial cut is very plain from hence, 
quite across the fen, through Cottenham parish until it enters 
the Old Oiise." Along this river it passed to Earith. He then 

continues it "by Ramsey to Suard's Dyke; then the boats 

passed by Benwick, where Roman coins have been found; so 
by Whittlesey Mere, or some cut by the side of it, to Horsey 
Bridge, where Roman coins too are found, and so to Peter- 
borough river" {Paleog. ii. 38). By this he probably means, 
that from Eai-ith it followed the West Water to Benwick, near 
Ramsey Mere, but in Cambridgeshire. In the second part of 

the Medallic History, he says, that "at Waterbech it begins 

with a fair and large artificial channel, proceeding by the wind- 
mill north-westward. The ditch now has water in it in several 
places" (p. 133). Singularly, Dugdale considered this as a 
branch of the Cam; his words are: — "The river Grant, by a 
fair channel passing from Beach to Chare Fen, in Cottenham, 
and so into Ouse, was diverted ; and by a straighter course 
turned down by another branch of the same river to Harrimere, 
where it loseth the name " {Embank. 373). Any persons who 
have carefully examined the country will I am convinced agree 
with me in believing that Dugdale was here depending upon 
incorrect information. Stukeley remarks that the country 
people had a notion that the Ouse originally ran by this course 
into the Cam, but adds that it has "not the least appearance 
of a natural river," and I quite agree with him. 

Near Waterbeche the channel of the supposed Gar Dyke is 

still very apparent, and, after leaving the fenny land by the 

Cam, consists of an enormously broad and deep artificial cut 

• having not the least resemblance to a natural watercourse. It 



109 

seems undoubtedly to be a very ancient and magnificent work. 
It is called by the people the Old Tillage or Twilade. Now to 
twilade means in some local dialects to "load, unload, then 
return for a second and take up the first load" (HalliweWs 
Dictionary) ; just as is done at what is called a Portage in the 
Hudson's Bay Territory. Can this have been a portage between 
the Cam and waters to the east of Cottenham (in what is called 
Cottenham Common on the Ordnance Map) where there is a 
large channel even now extending from Goose Farm to Lockspit 
Hall on the banks of the Old Ouse or West Water ? Stukeley 
says that it " runs by Chare Fen in the parish of Cottenham 

and passes into the present river called the Old Ouse, going 

to the great wooden bridge upon Audrey causeway, whence 
it goes along the present channel of the river westwards to 
Earith" (Car. i. 133) ; but I cannot find the position of Chare 
Fen. It is not marked on Wall's map or noticed in his book. 
"At Earith the Car Dyke, entering Huntingdonshire, crosses 

the Huntingdon river and proceeds northwards in that 

stream now called the West Water to Benwick, then by that 
stream called the Old Nen or Whittlesey Dyke to Peterborough" 
{Car. ii. 136). Notice has already been taken of Cnut's Dyke 
supposed to have been a road in connection with the navigation 
in this part of its course, and the King Street to have been of 
similar use to the north of Peterborough. Dugdale remarks 
concerning the channel by the side of this road, that " about 
two miles distant from the north-east side of the above-specified 
mere [Whittlesey], there is a memorable channel cut through 
the body of the fen, extending itself from near Ramsey to 
Peterborough, and is called King's Delph. The common 
tradition is, that King Canutus, or his queen, being in some 
peril, in their passage from Ramsey to Peterborough, by reason 
of the boisterousness of the waves on Whittlesey Mere, caused 
this ditch to be first made. And therewith do some of our 
historians agree who say thus : 'Anno Domini mxxxiv. Cnuto, 



110 

rex potentissimus, viam in marisco, inter Ramsey et Burgum, 
quod King's Delph dicitur, ut periculum magnorum stagnorum 
vitaretur, eruderavit ' (Matth. Westm. Annates). But how to 
reconcile this testimony with what I meet with three-score 
years before, I know not ; which is that King Edgar confirming 
to the monks of Peterborough the fourth part of Whittlesey 

Mere says [the boundaries extend] ' orientaliter ad Kinge's 

Delf.'" {Embank. 363.) (See Codex Diplom. ^Evi Saxon, iii. 93.) 
After these long and rather complicated extracts, I must now 
leave my readers to form their own opinion concerning the 
probability of these very ancient cuts being part of a great 
plan of the Romans in continuation southward of the Gar 
Dyke. It seems improbable that the Saxons can have made 
them at so early a period as that at which one part of them at 
least is shown to have existed ; and the traditional name of 
King's Delph, in conjunction with the King's Street to the 
north, may add weight to the supposition of both being of 
Roman origin ; and we have already seen that many Roman 
antiquities have been found near the line of this supposed 
canal, as in Cottenham Parish, near Haddenham and at 
Earith. 



VI. OLD COURSE OF THE RIVERS. 

Before concluding this sketch of the ancient lines of com- 
munication and earth-works of Cambridgeshire, it may be 
desirable to point out the old courses of the rivers that pass 
through the Fens. They are the Nen, the Great Ouse, the 
Cam, and the Little Ouse rivers. The Nen on arriving at 
Peterborough turned to the right, and making a circuit through 



Ill 

Whittlesey, Ugg and Ramsey Meres, passed then in a pretty 
direct course by March to Wisbech. At Peterborough it 
seems to have thrown off a branch to join the Welland near 
Croyland. 

The great Ouse enters the fens near Earith, at which place 
it formerly forked, its chief branch flowing by Harrimere, Ely 
and Littleport, then by what is now called the Welney river 
to Wisbech, where, in conjunction with the Nen, its waters 
reached the sea. The other branch of the Ouse ran from 
Earith to Benwick, where it joined the main channel of the 
Nen. Both these channels are now nearly or quite closed to 
the waters of the Ouse, which are carried by the Bedford rivers 
in a direct line to Denver, and there poured into the channel 
of the Little Ouse to reach the sea at Lynn. 

A little above Cambridge the Cam or Grant river is formed 
by the junction of three small streams, called Cam, and Bhe, 
and one nameless. Cam and Bhe are ancient Celtic names 
meaning Cam, a crooked or meandering stream, Bhe, a swift 
stream from rhedig to run ; these terms are very descriptive 
of our streams. I am indebted for these interpretations of the 
words to the late very eminent Welsh scholars the Rev. John 
Williams (ab Ithel), and the Rev. R. Williams of Rhydycroesau 
(Arch. Cambrensis, Ser. 3, iii. 219). 

The Cam, although it changes its name to Ouse at Har- 
rimere, where it originally joined that river on its way to 
Wisbech, does now really extend by way of Ely and Prickwillow 
to Denver ; for, except in case of very great floods, not a drop 
of Ouse water enters it before that place is reached. 

The Little Ouse is the present channel of the Great Ouse 
from Denver to Lynn. 

It is thus seen that nearly all the water which reached the 
great level found its natural outlet at Wisbech (a word rea- 
sonably derived from Ouse beach), where originally the channel 
was deep enough to afford a natural drainage to the country. 



112 

In process of time this outlet became choked, and the rivers 
changed their course or were diverted by artificial means. 

I have now only to add an expression of my hope that this 
attempt may lead others far better qualified for the task than 
I can pretend to be, to follow up the study of the traces left 
by the ancient inhabitants of our district, and to cause the 
production by some other member of the University of a more 
complete treatise on this interesting subject. 



INDEX. 



Ad Fines, 13 
Akeman Street, 14 

— near Tring, 26 

Akerman Street, at Ely, 25 
Aldreth Causeway, 79 
Ancient Ditches, 95 
Antonine Itinerary, 12 
Appleborough, 88 
Arbury, 15 
Aahwell Street, 57 
Aswich Grange, or Toft, 74 
Balsham Dyke, 92 
Barham Hall, 34 
Barraway, 77 
Bartlow Hills, 35 ' 
Beeston Berrys, 92 
Belsar's Hill, 80 
Bottisham Fen, 98 
Bourn, 49 
Brand Ditch, 101 
Brent Ditch, 100 
British Boad at Grantchester, 44 
British Shields, 16 
Bullock Boad, 91 
Burnt Fen, 18 
Burwell Fen, 98 
Bury, Huntingdonshire, 86 
Bury Steads, 76 
Caer Graunt, 10, 11 
Cssar's Camp, 92 
Camboritum, 10, 24 
Cambridge, 3 

— Ancient Roads through, 14 

— Bridge, 7 

— Description of Eoman Sta- 

tion at, 3 

— Boman Causeway at, 26 

— Roman Coin's at, 6 

— Boman Inscriptions found 

near, 41 

B. 



Camp at Arbury, 15 

— Barham Hall, 34 

— Belsar's Hill, 80 

— Galley Hill, 92 

— Granham, 51 

— King's Hedges, 14 

— Ring Hill 66 

— Sandy, 93 

— Starbury Hill, 66 

— Stetchworth, 98 

— Vandlebury, 33 
Car Dyke, 105 
Chatteris, 90 
Chatteris Ferry, 90 
Chesterfield, 93 
Chesterford, 50 
Chesterton, 12, 94 
Chippenham, 75 
Chroniele Hills, 63 
Cnut's Dyke, 95 
Coldham, 88 

Colne, 76 

Comberton, Villa at, 22 

— Maze at, 23 
Cottenham, 82 
Coveney, 16 
Cuckoo Lane, 81 
Denver, 70, 71 
Devil's Ditch, 97 
Devil's Dyke in Norfolk, 104 
Ditches, 95 

Brand, or Heydon Ditch, 101 

Brent, or Pampisford Ditch, 100 

Devil's Ditch, 97 

Fleam, or Balsham Dyke, 99 
Durobrivse, 53 
Durolipons, 53 
Earith, 76 
Elloe, 74 
Elm, 74 



114 



Ely, 16 

Ely to Spalding, 73 

E raring Street, 52 

Exning, 65 

Fen Eoad, 68 

Fleam Dyke, 99 

Fleet, 74 

Fordey, 78 

Foss Dyke, 104 

Foxton, 63 

Fulbourn, 31 

Galley Hill, 92 

Gedney Hill, 74 

Giant's Hill, 81 

Glassmore, 72 

Godmanchester, 53 

Gogmagog Hills, 33 

Granham, 51 

Granta, 10 

Grantabrigge, 11 

Grantchester, 44 

Grunty Fen, 18 

Haddenham, 76, 77 

Harborougli Banks, 57 

Haregate, 89 

Hauxton, 52 

Henxwell, 58 

Hergate, 89 

Hey Hill, 21 

Heydon, chamber near, 102 

Heydon Ditch, 101 

How's House, 35, 40 

Huckeridge, 51 

Iceanum, 66 

Iciani, 13 

Icknield Way, 55 

Inscriptions near Cambridge, 41 

Ireton's Way, 70 

Itineraries of Antoninus, 12 

Kiln at Fulbourn, 31 

King's Delph, 109 

King's Hedges, 14 

Lidgate, 75 

Limbury Hill, 62 

Limlow Hill, 62 

Linton, 34 

Litlington, 58 



Maney, 72 

March, 42 

Mareway, 21, 65, 81 

Maze at Comberton, 23 

Melbourn, 62 

Moat Way, 79 

Mutlow Hill, 67 

Newmarket, 55 

Newton, 89 

Nordelph, 70 

Old Causeway Dyke, 73 

Old course of rivers, 110 

Old Spalding Gate, 89 

Ousden, 75 

Pampisford Ditch, 100 

Peddar Way, 64 

Port Way, 22, 65 

Prickwillow, 18 

Bampton, 81 

Eeche, 97 

Eing Hill, 66 

Eivers, old course of, 110 

Eoads: Akeman Street, 14 

— — Street, near Tring, 26 

— Aldreth Causeway, 79 

— Ash well Street, 57 

— Bishops Stortford to Braugh- 

ing, 68 

— Bullock Eoad, 91 

— Bury to Spalding, 88 

— Cambridge to Braughing, 51 

— Cambridge to Chesterford, 50 

— Cnut's Dyke, 109 

— Ely to Spalding, 73 

— Erming Street, 52 

— Fen Eoad, 68 

— Grantchester and Barton, 43 

— Icknield Way, 55 

— Mare Way, 21, 80 

— Moat Way, 79 

— Peddar Way, 64 

— Port Way, 22 

— Sand Way, 81 

— Sawtry Way, 75 

— Stangate, 53 

— Street Way, 65 

— Suffolk Way, 75 



115 



Roads : Via Devana, 26 
— Wool Street, 34 
Roman Antiquities at 

Bartlow Hills, 35 

Bottisham Fen, 98 

Bourn, 49 

Burnt Fen, 18 

Burwell Fen, 98 

Caldecot, 58 

Cambridge, 4, 26 

Castor, 54 

Chatteris, 90 

Chronicle Hills, 63 

Coldham, 88 

Comberton, 22 

Cottenham, 82 

Dam Hill, 48 

Doddington, 88 

Earith, 76 

Elm, 74 

Exning, 65 

Foxton, 63 

Fulbourn, 31 

Girton College, 37 

Glassmore, 72 

Gravel Hill, 48 

Gravel Hill Farm, 35 

Guilden Morden, 61 

Haddenham, 76, 77 

Hadstock, 35 

Harborough Banks, 57 

Henxwell, 58 

Heydon, 101 

Hey Hill, 21 

Lidgate, 75 

Limbury Hill, 62 

Linton, 35 

Litlington, 58 

March, 72 

Melbourn, 62 

Mutlow Hill, 67 

Over, 82 

Shefford, 25 

Somersham, 78, 79 

Stoney, 72 

Thorney, 72 
Toft, 49 



Roman Antiquities at 

Trumpington, 48 

Tydd St Mary, 89 

Waldersey, 88 

Walpole St Peter, 90 

Willingham, 84, 86 

Wimblington, 88 

Wisbech, 89 
Roman Burial-place at Litlington, 53 
Roman Causeway at Cambridge, 26 

at Birkenhead, 28 

in Lancashire, 28 

at Kincardine, 28 
Roman Coins : 

Appleborough, 88 

Aswich Grange, or Toft, 74 

Bartlow Hills, 35 

Benwick, 88 

Boxworth, 42 

Burnt Fen, 19 

Cambridge, 6 

Castle Camps, 34 

Castor, 54 

Chatteris, 91 

Chesterton, 16 

Comberton, 23 

Cottenham, 82 

Elm, 74 

Exning, 65 

Five-barrow Field, 57 

Fleet, 74 

Gedney Hill, 74 

Grantchester, 44 

Guilden Morden, 61 

Haddenham, 84 

Heydon, 64 

Hinxton, 63 

Horseheath, 35 

How's House, 35 

King's Hedges, 15 

Landbeche, 16 

Lidgate, 75 

Limbury Hill, 62 

Litlington, 59 

Madingley, 43 

March, 72 

Mutlow Hill, 67 



116 



Roman Coins : 

Newmarket Heath, 67 

Newton, 89 

Ouseden, 75 

Over, 82 

Beche, 97 

Shudy Camps, 34 

Starbury Hill, 66 

Stoney, 72 

Sutton St Edmund's, 74 

Thorney, 72 

Upwell, 73 

Vandlebury, 33 

Waldersey, 88 

Walsoken, 90 

Welney, 73 
. West "Wickham, 34 

Whaplode Drove, 74 

Whittlesford, 63 

Wicken, 78 

Willingham, 86 

Wimblington, 88 

Wisbech, 88 
Eoman Fort at Grantchester, 44 
Bomaninscriptions near Cambridge, 41 
Roman sea-bank, 89 
Roman Station at 

Brancodunum, 19 

Bury, Huntingdonshire, 86 

Camboritum, 10 

Cambridge, 3 

Chesterford, 50 

Godmanchester, 53 

Grantchester, 44 

Durobriva9, 53 

Durolipons, 53 

Ely, 16 

Salense, 92 

Sandy, 92 
Boman Villa near 

Comberton, 22 



Boman Villa near 

Linton, 35 

Litlington, 58 

Boyston, 57 
Salenae, 91 
Sand Way, 81 
Sawston, 51 
Sawtry Way, 75, 79 
Skefford, 25 
Shields, British, 16 
Soham, 75 
Somersham, 78, 79 
Stangate, 53 
Starbury Hill, 66 
Stetchworth, 98 
Stoney, 72 

Stourbridge Fair, 107 . 
Street Way, 65 
Sutton St Edmund's, 74 
Suffolk Way, 75 
Thetford (Camb.), 76 
Thorney, 72 
Toft, 49 

Trumpington, 48 
Twenty-pence Ferry, 80 
Two-penny Loaves, 30 
Tydd St Mary, 89 
Upwell, 73 
Vandlebury, 33 
Via Devana, 26 

— supposed branch to Chester- 
ton, 30 
Waldersey, 88 
Walpole St Peter, 90 
Walsoken, 90 
Welney, 73 
Whaplode Drove, 74 
Wimblington, 88 
Wisbech, 88, 89 
Witchford, 76 
Wool Street, 34 



CAMBRIDGE : PRINTED BY C. 3. CLAY, M.A. & SON, AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. 



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LIST OF THE PUBLICATIONS OF THE 
CAMBRIDGE ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY. 



REPORTS. 
Reports I— X (1841—1850). Ten numbers. 1841—1850. Svo. 

PUBLICATIONS. QUARTO SERIES. 
I. A Catalogue of the original Library of St Catharine's Hall, 1475. Ed. 

by Professor Corrie, B.D. 1840. Is. 6d. 
II. Abbreviata Cronica, 1377—1469. Ed. by J. J. Smith, M.A. 1840. 
With a facsimile. 2s. Qd. 

III. An account of the Consecration of Abp. Parker. Ed. by J. Goodwin, 

B.D. 1841. With a facsimile. 3s. 6d. 

IV. An application of Heraldry to the illustration of University and 

Collegiate Antiquities. By H. A. Woodham, A.B. Part I. 1841. 
With illustrations. 

V. An application of Heraldry, &c. By H. A. Woodham, M.A. Part 

II. 1842. With illustrations. 

*** Nos. IV and V together, 9s. 6d. 

VI. A Catalogue of the MSS. and scarce books in the library of St 

John's College. By M. Cowie, M.A. Parti. 1842. 

VII. A description of the Sextry Barn at Ely, lately demolished. By 

Professor Willis, M.A. 1843. With 4 pla*<">. 3s. 
VIII. A Catalogue of the MSS. and scarce books \e Library of St 

John's College. By M. Cowie, M.A. Part Ix. 1..43. 
*** Nos. VI and VIII together, 9s. 

IX. Architectural Nomenclature of the Middle Ages. By Professor 

Willis, M.A. 1844. With 3 plates. 

X. Roman and Romano-British Remains at and near ShefFord. By Sir 

Henry Dryden, Bart., M.A. And a Catalogue of Coins from the 
same place. By C. W. King, M.A. 1845. With 4 plates. 6s. 6d. 
XL Specimens of College Plate. By J. J. Smith, M.A. 1845. With 
13 plates. 15s. 

XII. Roman-British Remains. On the materials of two sepulchral 

vessels found at Warden. By Professor Henslow, MA. 1846. 
With 2 plates. 4s. 
*#* Nos. I — XII, with a title-page, form Vol. I of the Society's Quarto 

Publications. 

XIII. Evangelia Augustini Gregoriana. A description of MSS. 286 and 

197 in the Parker Library. By J. Goodwin, B.D. 1847. With 
11 plates. 20s. 

XIV. Miscellaneous Communications, Part I : I. On palimpsest sepulchral 

brasses. By A. W. Franks. With 1 plate. II. On two British 
shields found in the Isle of Ely. By C. W. Goodwin, M.A. With 
4 plates. III. A Catalogue of the books bequeathed to C. C. 
College by Tho. Markaunt in 1439. Ed. by J. O. Halliwell. 
IV. The genealogical history of the Freville Family. By A. W. 
Franks. With 3 plates. 1848. 15s. 

XV. An historical Inquiry touching St. Catharine of Alexandria : to 

which is added a Semi-Saxon Legend. By C. Hardwick, M.A. 
1849. With 2 plates. 12s. 
*** Nos. XIII— XV, with a title-page, form Vol. II of the Society's 
Quarto Publications. 
[0. P. xx. February 1883.] 



REPORTS AND COMMUNICATIONS. OCTAVO SERIES. 

Reports XI — XIX (with Abstract of Proceedings, 1850 — 59) ; Commu- 
nications, Octavo Series, Nos. I — IX. Nine numbers. 1851 — 1859. 

"*** Communications, Octavo Series, Nos. I — IX, with a title-page, 
contents and index, form Vol. I of the Society's Antiquarian Com- 
munications. 1859. lis. 

Reports XX— XXIV (with Abstract of Proceedings, 1859—64) ; Com- 
munications, Nos. X — XIV. Five numbers. 1S60 — 1864. 

*#* Communications, Nos. X — XIV, with a title-page, contents, and 
index, form Vol. II of the Society's Antiquarian Communications. 
1864. 10s. 

Report XXV (with Abstract of Proceedings, 1864—65); Communica- 
tions, No. XV (marked by mistake XIV). 1865. 2s. 

Report XXVI (with Abstract of Proceedings, 1865 — 66) ; Communica- 
tions, No. XVI (marked by mistake XV). 1866. 2s. 

Report XXXIII (with Abstract of Proceedings, 1866 — 73, and Reports 
XXVII— XXXII) ; Communications, No. XVII. 1878. 8s. 

Report XXXVI (with Abstract of Proceedings, 1S73 — 76, and Reports 
XXXIV, XXXV) ; Communications, No. XVIII. 1879. 3s. 

*** Communications, Nos. XV — XVIII, with a title-page, contents, 
and index, form Vol. Ill of the Society's Cambridge Antiquarian 
Communications. 1879. 15s. 

Report XXXVII (with Abstract of Proceedings, 1876 — 77); Communi- 
cations, No. XIX. 187S. 3s. 

Report XXXVIII (with Abstract of Proceedings, 1877—78); Communi- 
cations, No. XX. 1878. 3s. 

Report XXXIX (with Abstract of Proceedings, 1878 — 79); Communi- 
cations, No. XXI. 1881. 4s. 

Report XL (with Abstract of Proceedings, 1879 — SO); Communications, 
No. XXII. 1881. 4s. 

*** Communications, Nos. XIX — XXII, with a title-page, contents, 
and index, form Vol. IV of the Society's Cambridge Antiquarian 
Communications. 1881. 14s. 

Report XLI (with Abstract of Proceedings, 1S80 — 81); Communications, 
No. XXIII. In the Press. 

Report XLII (with Abstract of Proceedings, 1881 — 82) ; Communi- 
cations, No. XXIV. In the Press. 



PUBLICATIONS. OCTAVO SERIES. 

I. The Anglo-Saxon legends of St Andrew and St Veronica. Ed. by 

C. W. Goodwin, MA. 1851. 2s. 6d. 

II. Fragment of a Graeco-Egyptian work upon magic. Ed. by C. W. 

Goodwin, M.A. 1852. With a facsimile. 3s. 6d. 

III. Ancient Cambridgeshire. By C. C. Babington, M.A. 1853. With 

4 plates and a map. 3s. 6d. 

IV. A History of Waterbeach. By W. K. Clay, B.D. 1859. With 

3 plates. 5s. 

V. The Diary of Edward Rud; to which are added several letters of 

Dr. Bentley. Ed. by H. R. Luard, M.A. 1860. 2s. 6d. 

VI. A History of Landbeach. By W. K. Clay, B.D. 1861. With 

1 plate. 4s. 6d. 

VII. A History of Horningsey. By W. K. Clay, B.D. 1865. 2s. 6d. 
*** Nos. IV, VI, and VII, with a title-page, form a volume entitled : 

' Three Cambridgeshire Parishes : or a History,' &c. 1865. 12s. 

VIII. The Correspondence of Richard Porson, M.A., formerly Regius 

Professor of Greek. Ed. by H. R. Luard, M. A. 1867- 4s. 6d. 

IX. The History of Queens' College. Part I. 1446—1560. By W. G. 

Searle, M.A. 1867. 8s. 

X. Historical and Architectural Notes on Great St Mary's Church. By 

S. Sandars, M.A. Together with the Annals of the Church. By 
Canon Venables, M.A. 1869. With 1 plate. 3s. 

XL A History of Milton. By the late W. K. Clay, B.D. 1869. 3s. 
*** Nos. IV, VI, VII, and XI, with a title-page, form a volume entitled : 
'Histories of the Four Adjoining Parishes/ &c. 1861— 1869. 15s. 

XII. The Coins, Tokens, and Medals of the Town, County and University 
of Cambridge. By W.G. Searle, M.A. 1871. 2s. 

XIII. The History of Queens' College. Part II. 1560—1662. By W. G. 

Searle, M.A. 1871. 8s. 

XIV. The History and Antiquities of the Parish of Bottisham and of the 

Priory of Anglesey. By Edw. Hailstone, Jun. With 7 plates. 
1873. 12s. 

XV. An annotated List of Books printed on vellum to be found in 

the University and College Libraries at Cambridge; with an 
appendix on the bibliography of Cambridge libraries. By S. 
Sandars, M.A. 1878. 2s. 

XVI. A Supplement to the History of the Parish of Bottisham and the 

Priory of Anglesey. By Edw. Hailstone, Jun. 1878. Is. 

XVII. Josselin's Historiola Collegii Corporis Christi eb Beatae Mariae 

Cantabrigiae. Ed. by J. W. Clark, M.A. 1880. 2s. 

XVIII. The Bells of Cambridgeshire. By J. J. Raven, D.D. 1881. 5s. 

XIX. A Supplement to the ' Bells of Cambridgeshire,' with an Index to 

the whole work. By J. J. Raven, D.D. 1882. Is. 
*#* Nos. XVIII and XIX, with a title-page to the whole work, form a 
volume. 1881—82. 6s. 



PUBLICATIONS. OCTAVO SERIES, continued. 

XX. Ancient Cambridgeshire. By C. C. Babington, M.A., F.K.S., 
F.S.A. Second edition, much enlarged, 1883. With a map. 5s. 

Suggestions addressed to King Henry VIII. for a Coinage for 
Ireland and the other islands belonging to England. By Nicolas 
Tyery. Ed. by G. O. White Cooper, B.A. In the Press. • 



OCCASIONAL PUBLICATIONS. 



Catalogue of Coins, Roman and English series, in the Museum of the Cam- 
bridge Antiquarian Society. 1847. Svo. 2s. 

On the Cover of the Sarcophagus of Rameses III, now in the Fitzwilliam 
Museum. By Samuel Birch, Esq., LL.D. 1875. 4to. 

*** This paper has also been printed in the Society's Communications, 
Vol. Ill, No. XXXV. 

List of the Members of the Society, May 26, 1879. Svo. 

List of the Members of the Society, May 24, 1880. Svo. 

List of the Members of the Society, May 30, 1881. 8vo. 

List of the Members of the Society, May 22, 1882. 8vo. 

Note. — The Secretary of the Society is the Rev. S. S. Lewis, Corpus 
Christi College, Cambridge; to whom all communications relating to the 
Society may be addressed. 



V ® 8 



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